SAINT-AYISI SAMUEL

The Writer In context of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana in specific provision of Chapter Five (5), the fundamental human rights of both the lecturers and the students in the "sex for grades" investigative piece ought to be respected. In the case of Professor Gyampo, he proposed to the prospective student to marry her. In the face of the law, Professor Gyampo committed no offence thereof.  However, there is no specific provision in the 1992 Constitution which captures student-lecturer relation. Although there is no specific provision protecting the relationship of the two parties, per Article 165 of the 1992 Constitution, it is impliedly stated that sexual relationship of both Professor Gyampo and the lady is also a form of right exercisable by all citizens of Ghana. This is therefore important to identify the basic rights of Professor Gyampo, to justify his action of marriage proposal to the lady.  Dr. Butakor and Dr Igbeneghu, on the other hand also committe...

The Writer Restitution is the ordering of a court of payment of money or the return of property found to have been stolen by the accused person. A judge in a criminal case could only make restitution orders against an accused person. Section 146 of Act 30, therefore, provides that where a person is convicted of having stolen or having obtained property fraudulently or by false pretences, the Court convicting that person may order that the property or a part of the property be restored to the person who appears to the Court to be entitled to it. And so in The Republic v Circuit Court Judge Hohoe; Ex Parte Atalu and Another , the High Court in quashing the purported restitution orders of the Circuit Court held that restitution orders could only be made against convicted persons and not against strangers to the criminal charge. However, with the passage of the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) (No.2) Act, 1964 (Act 254), a number of inroads have been made in the law of rest...

Writer Under the criminal justice system, a crime is regarded as an offence against the state and not the victim. The state steps into the shoes of the victim and prosecutes the offender. In the end, the state focuses on punishing the offender to either pay a fine to the state or commit the offender to a prison term. There is very little or  no attention to the needs of the victim, hence leaving the victim unsatisfied, impoverished and bitter. In view of this challenge, there are other alternative methods of settling criminal disputes outside the traditional criminal justice system. One of such methods is the victim-offender mediation. Victim offender mediation aims at restoring damaged or broken relationships between an offender and a victim by providing both parties an opportunity to meet face to face to address their differences through mediation. This is also called transformative justice or restorative justice. It enables parties to settle their disputes without going...

Saint-Ayisi Samuel In criminal matters, the fundamental human right, as some say, is curtailed immediately someone is charged by the police. It is plausible to indicate that, the principle of the criminal justice in Ghana makes provision for fair trial, fair hearing (audi alteram partem), right to privacy and even, exercise of fundamental human rights enshrined in Chapter five (5) of the 1992 Constitution. Notably, the right to privacy is a fundamental human right hence, admissible in criminal matters even with the accused. Privacy is the right of individual to be protected against the intrusion into his/her personal life; or affairs; or his/her family by direct physical means or by publication of information. However, in most criminal charges and criminal prosecutions, some State Authorities have opposed to these suggestions because they believe that laws intended to protect accused persons of their privacy could be used to prevent the State prosecutors from reve...

The fundamental rights and freedoms on speech and expression is explicitly enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. This is clearly stipulated in the Chapter five (5) of the Constitution. Article 12 Clause (1) of the 1992 Constitution states that "all persons shall have the right to- (a) freedom of speech and expression, which shall include freedom of the press and other media; (b) freedom of thought, conscience and belief, which shall include academic freedom". In a more elaborative way in relation to the rights and freedoms of the operations of the media, Chapter 12 of the 1992 in details, defines the expressive powers of the media without any interference. These provisions have some similarities (if not the same) with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rig...

Many Ghanaians have espoused that the influx of foreign retailers in the market is a threat to indigenous business and that, the ramifications of such influx is a collapse of local businesses. This call by most Ghanaians is perceived to be a mere necessary evil but, I want to state unequivocally that it is a constitutional freedom for local retailers to remain uncompetitive with foreign traders in the area of retail. Under the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 1994, (Act 478) and Act 2013 (Act 865), certain enterprises are reserved for Ghanaians and it is an offence for foreigners to participate in those specified enterprises. Section 27(1) of the GIPC Act 2013 (Act 865) states that “A person who is not a citizen or an enterprise which is not wholly owned by citizen shall not invest or participate in- a) the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place; b) the operation of taxi or ca...

THE WRITER The 1992 Constitution, art 64(1) provides that the validity of the election of the president may be challenged only by a citizen of Ghana by a petition presented to the Supreme Court within twenty-one days after the declaration of the results. Article 64(2) further provides that a declaration by the Supreme Court that the election of the President is invalid shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration. And article 64(3) stipulates that the Rules of Court Committee shall make rules for the practice and procedure for the petitions to the Supreme Court. The Rules of Court Committee established under article 157 of the 1992 Constitution, has accordingly made Rules, pursuant to article 157(2) if the Constitution, namely, the Supreme Court Rules, 2012(CI 74), by substituting for Part VIII of the Supreme Court Rules,1996 (CI 16) as amended, the new Part VIII, headed:  “PART VIII – CHALLENGING OF ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT.” This p...

Under article 130(1)(a) of the 1992 constitution, all matters relating to the enforcement or interpretation of the constitution should be exclusively determined by the Supreme Court. Consequently, whenever, in determining a dispute relating to parliamentary election, the High Court finds that an issue relating to the enforcement or interpretation of the Constitution arises, the High Court must, under article 130(2) of the Constitution, stay proceedings and refer the constitutional issue to the Supreme Court for determination. Referral or otherwise to the Supreme Court by trial High Court of a constitutional issue The referral or otherwise of a constitutional issue by a trial High Court was considered by the Supreme Court in the case of the Republic v High Court, General Jurisdiction, Accra; Ex parte Zanetor Rawlings (Ashitey & National Democratic Congress Interested Parties) (No 1), Supreme Court, 19 May 2016 to be published in [2015-2016] SCLGR 53. After alluding to the ar...

Patent applications are worldwide patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty procedure or with a national patent office for exclusive rights for an invention--a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem. A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a limited period, generally 20 years. Most often, these products or process gives new technical solutions to a problem, or a new method of doing things, or the composition of a new product or a technical improvement on how certain objects work.  Basically, a patent shall be a right granted to the owner of an invention that prevents others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without his permission. Patents and its related grants, as well as registration and invalidation, are secured under the Patents Act 2003, Act 657. A patent is defined as title granted to protect an invention and a...

Abdul Bassit Mohammed Yussif It is very critical to note a common practice in life, which points to the facts that “the same boiling water that melts the potato eventually softens the egg". This occasion for me goes a long way to pointing to the effects that a situation that weakens, threatens, and intimidate the masses must certainly be the one that encourages, pushes us and challenge us to rise against all  odds to facing our confrontations headstrong especially when it has promised to be the only guarantee of our collective failures, weakness and humiliation of our proud kingdom – “ Nanung ”, the only kingdom that defines our unique identity as Nanumbas far important beyond any other selfish and unproductive groupings or identities. Why then must we not discuss, share our opinions and attempt solutions to our problems which have seriously become a nightmare that has crippled our fortunes and successes as a people? This ridiculous culture of silence got to be ended som...