Annul Legal Profession Regulations

The Association of Law Students’ Presidents has urged the annulment of the Legal Profession (Professional and Post-Call Law Course) Regulations, 2017 currently before Parliament's Subsidiary Legislation Committee.

In a petition addressed to Speaker, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye, the Association has raised grave issues with the Regulation including some breaches of sections of the 1992 Constitution.

“We wish to suggest, in our respectful opinion, that if the Regulation is allowed to pass by the lapse of time, the Regulation will constitute another unfortunate passing of a Regulation by Parliament,” a copy of the document dated January 5, 2018 read.

Related Article: Supreme Court ‘quashes’ Ghana School of Law admission process

The General Legal Council (GLC) has been accused of deliberately attempting to frustrate potential law students with the Regulation.

Under the proposed Legislative Instrument (L.I), students who wish to go to the Ghana School of Law will be required to sit an entrance exam followed by an interview.

Related Article: Supreme Court ruling on Ghana School of Law confusing – Kwaku Azar

The issue was a subject of a court case in 2015 in which the Supreme Court held the requirement was “unconstitutional.”

The GLC has taken the Regulation to Parliament to have it legalized, despite the apex court's ruling.

But the Association of Law Students’ Presidents has said the Regulation has issues, threatening it could go to court again if it is passed.

“The court is most likely to declare certain provision(s) unconstitutional, as exemplified in the recent case of Ghana Independent Broadcasting Association (GIBA) v Attorney General and National Media Commission (Content Standards Regulations) 2016 (unreported case)," the petition read.

The Association said the General Legal Council has "over a certain period" neglected or failed to carry out certain aspect of its duty under Sections 1(3), 13 and 14 of The Legal Profession Act 1960, Act 32.

This, it argued created a huge "problem of imbalance" between the number of eligible students qualified for the professional law course and the disproportionate capacity of the Ghana School of Law to absorb all the eligible students.

"In the circumstance, it is unconscionable, in our respectful view, in accordance with Articles 38(1) and 297(b) of the 1992 Constitution, that General Legal Council deems it fit that Ghana does not need to expand facilities for legal education," the petition added.