Lawyers Honour Akufo-Addo
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate has been honoured by his colleague lawyers, who have named a prestigious legal competition after him.
The international legal contest with the objective of developing world class advocates and practitioners in various arms of the law profession has been instituted in the country with renowned legal luminaries forming its panel of judges.
The judges and advocates are Prof S.K. Date-Bah, Justice of the Supreme Court; Helen Pataki, Legal Advisor, US Missions in West Africa (USAID); Yaw Benneh and Mr. George Sarpong, both lecturers at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana; and Ace Ankomah, a distinguished private legal practitioner and lecturer at the Ghana School of Law.
Others are Frank Davies, Kizito Beyuo, Nana Oye Lithur and Anthony Forson Jnr, who are all prominent private legal practitioners and Dr. Ken Attafuah, a criminologist and a lawyer.
Dubbed 'Akufo-Addo National Round International Law Moot Court Competition', the contest, according to Kwame Amankwah-Twum and Michael Akafia, National Administrator and two-times judge at the International Rounds respectively, would afford young Ghanaian lawyers the opportunity to compete with the best and brightest in the world.
Another objective of the legal contest, according to the organizers, is that it will fill in the critical skill gap and the missing link in legal education and training in the country.
The maiden event, according to a release, is scheduled to hold on 21st and 22nd February 2008 at he Superior Courts Building in Accra.
Participating are six teams from the two law faculties of the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and the Ghana School of Law.
The best team will go home with a trophy to be kept for a year after which it would be surrendered for the following competition.
According to the organizers, any school which wins the trophy for three consecutive times will keep it for good.
Another attraction for the competition is that the winner will represent Ghana at the annual Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington DC in the United States.
The largest, most prestigious and oldest moot court competition in the world is the annual Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court which is in its 48th year.
This year's event in the US takes place from 6th to 12th April 2008 in Washington DC and its initial stage hosts some 600 law schools from several law schools globally.
With an opportunity for law students to acquire essential training for their future law practice, Ghana has had a long standing association with the competition.
Giving a background to the competition, the organizers explained that Ghana, to ensure an effective participation, was asked to give a national touch to it.
“Ghana has had a long history of association with the competition. Historically, the Ghana Team has been selected from the Ghana School of Law. However, it has been agreed that for Ghana to compete effectively, the team must be chosen from a National Competition involving all law faculties/schools in Ghana. It is in that spirit that the novel Akufo-Addo National Round International Law Moot Court competition is being instituted this year,” the release stated.
Former Jessup participants are scattered throughout the finest law firms around the globe, universities, parliaments and international organizations.
By A. R. Gomda