Transcript for:
Understanding Ghana's Constitutional Law

come on because it looks like um the dennis is on the other on the other platform he's here okay that's fine okay so uh good afternoon uh all of you in a very special way uh i would like to thank the lawsuit sir professor justice mr jay for uh spending close to three hours about three days ago with us to give us uh a complete inside out of gaining one law which is quite helpful especially being at an era in which our landlord has seen some significant transformation with respect to enactment of the land act uh attended this and i went to him again as oliver twist no oliver uh ask for more so i went to my lord again i asked for more and uh my lord has a major uh agreement and he offered to come again with to help us in the last minute so what's your exams on tuesday so i'm going to invite his lawsuit to speak to us on issues pertaining to constitutional law and ghana and legal system my lord said denise jay please students thank you my brother dr ellison and good afternoon to my dear students good afternoon we are discussing mainly constitutional law and aspect of legal system when we talk about constitution basically what comes to mind if you are in this part of the world you talk about a document containing all important matters which have been codified in one book that is what we appreciate whenever you hear of the word constitution but constitution goes beyond written constitution the one we have in ghana is the one we have in ghana is a written constitution and when we say that the constitution is a written constitution what we are saying is that it has been codified into just one book so if you go to the united kingdom where do you have all the laws scattered in different documents it is a constitution but because it is uncodified it is known as unwritten or uncodified constitution through constitution we have written and unwritten the only difference is that when we say it is written it is codified in one book on written you'll find them in several books or or starting and it is unwritten or unqualified and it is either written or codified so again this one it is a written constitution or codified constitution and constitution is classified based on various considerations for example constitution may be classified based on mode of amendment so we have amendments and non-amendments because in ghana for instance we have various types of amendments ghana we have entrenched non-entrenched if you look at our constitution we have entrenched provisions and non-entrenched provisions when we talk about non-entrenched provisions they are prohibitions in the constitution that may be amended only by parliament only without involving their populists but when we talk about entrenched then we need those of 18 and above to take part in the referendum and even in ghana even though we talk about entrenched unentrenched or entrenched and enshrined there is a third aspect which we call unamended prohibition if you go to the transitional provisions section 35 36 37 i believe that when you say articles we are talking about the first part of the conversation at the moment we mention sessions we are referring to the national provisions if you go to the transitional prohibitions section 35 36 37 cannot be amended by anybody so if you are classifying that part of the constitution it will come within the ambit of unamended constitution it is based on several whether we have federer federer expertise in nigeria or unitary expertise in ghana we have several moves of constitution but today the emphasis is not on the on the types of constitution we will start with the um article one the supremacy theory in constitution when we talk about the supremacy theory what we are seeing is that the constitution is the supreme lord on the land and there must be a provision who says that yes the constitution is the supreme law on the land why the constitution being the supreme law on the land it is the supreme law on the land because of his peculiar features what are some of the peculiar features of the constitution number one it is the supreme law on the land number two it is the fundamental law on the land number three it is c daenerys constitution is still generous it is made for a particular country so ghana's constitution was made for ghanaians nigerians constitution was made for nigerians so constitution is still generous then when we are interpreting constitution we say that constitution is a living organism capable of growth where we say that constitution is a living organism capable of growth meaning every constitution one when it is being interpreted we look at the meaning at the time the test was created and the meaning at the time of interpretation meaning the meanings can change depending on several factors they mean even though the ways remain the same the test the tests do not change but the meaning will change depending on circumstances for example political changes culturality in this sociological changes economical changes they will affect the meanings to be given to the constitution so when we are interpreting constitution we say that constitution is a living organism capable of group and indeed it is a living organism capable of growth so let's look at the supremacy theory if we look at the preamble for instance the prayer ambulator the conversation tells us that the people of ghana exercise their natural and inalienable right to set up a framework to give to themselves blessings of liberty equality of opportunity and prosperity to themselves and posterity those unborn must also benefit from the constitution then the same preamble tells us that the constitution seeks to promote rule of law fundamental human rights so these are the objects the goals that the constitution seeks to achieve so let's go to article one after okay one time says that the people of ghana we have come together to promote our faith and to ensure that we get the maximum welfare under a government then we come out to this framework and we provide limits rights responsibilities for the governors who are coming to govern us so we meet so the constitution is likely me to promote the welfare of the people and those who are given the authority to govern they have rights and limitations it is not merely rights they have rights and limitations when they are given rights then a limitation is based on article 1 2 says that the constitution shall be the supreme law on the land this is the supremacy theory 11 we shall discuss them when we move on to article 11 and we discuss the other sources of law what we say is that there could there are several laws on the land but the constitution is supreme therefore any law should not be in conflict with the constitution so if a law is found to be in conflict with the constitution it shall be void to the extent of the conflict or the inconsistency quiet often when students are asked the constitution is supreme by verity of article one and they say yes it is not true the constitution is supreme by verity of africa one cross two and not and not article 11. the constitution is supreme by verity of article one cross one sorry africa one cross two who says that the constitution shall be the supreme law of ghana when we move on to article 11 article 11 is not a ring in iraqi order and eleven does not say that the constitution is the supreme law it is article one cross one of the constitution which is that the constitution shall be the supreme law so that is the supreme cities and ghana when we are talking about their supremacy theory we are referring to article one cross two of the constitution now we know the constitution and we are saying that the constitution is a supreme law on the land then we need a referee to god that's where any law is made in conflict with the constitution that shall measure it that will take us to article two article two has created the supreme court actually supreme court was created by attacker 126 of the constitution not article 2 attacker 126 of the constitution created the supreme court but article 2 gives power to the supreme court to enforce their constitution and when we talk about the enforcement of the constitution we combine two prohibitions articles ii and articles 120 130 articles 2 and articles 130. when we talk about article 2 article 2 will tell us that where a person alleges where a person is saying that a law is in conflict with the constitution then then that person may go to the supreme court and this one has been settled by several decisions a agency based attorney general uh total adjectives attorney general is one of them then some versus attorney general all those cases they have settled and even boom bomb butter versus generally guard cancer the law is settled that article 2 the word a person there refers to a citizen of ghana why a citizen of ghana if you go to the preamble if you read attack one it is ghanaians who have made their own constitution and not any other person so when a person is alleging that a law has been made and the law is in conflict with the constitution or a person is going to enforce a right under the constitution then that right is available to only ghanians that is why article 2 the word a person there has been has been construed to mean a citizen of ghana the only locus a person needs to establish one seeking to invoke the interpretative jurisdiction or enforcement jurisdiction of their constitution is to demonstrate that he or she is a ghanaian period it ends there when we look at circles 2 and 130 the supreme court has the power to do two things you may go for enforcement of the constitution if you are going for enforcement of the constitution meaning there is a provision in the constitution which needs to be enforced then any person can go then where a person is also alleging that there is an interpretative issue part of the constitution are in conflict or we have to we have a provision in the constitution and the parties are put to rival meanings in that sense what do you do you go to the supreme court so when you talk about articles 2 and 130 here we are talking about two things you either go for the enforcement generalization of the supreme court or the interpretative jurisdiction of the supreme court there are several cases initially the courts were not settled in mainstream watching in in in a separate universe a media commission granted media commission the supreme court per majority held that supreme court under article 2 could only interpret the constitution and not for enforcement but the law is now settled that supreme court has both enforcement or enforcement or interpretative jurisdiction of the constitution so let's move on the same article two when a supreme court makes a declaration then that declaration might be directed to the person to be obeyed if the person who who is directed to be failed to be that person does not commit content please this one is very important whenever a person feels to obey an order of a court of competent jurisdiction the person commits content but where an order is made under article 2 then supreme could give directives to be complied with and that person feels to comply with that person does not commit contempt but rather the person commits high crime high crime means supreme court has made an order under article 2 directing the person to to act and that person has failed so in that sense that person commits high crime then when we move to article 3 we are to defend the constitution because we are saying that this the concession is the supreme law if the constitution is the supreme law then we must defend their constitution how do we defend their constitution then we must make it a criminal criminal offense for any person who unlawful suspend abrogate or does anything illegal to the constitution so any illegal or unlawful attempt to suppress abrogate suspend past or who of the constitution is a criminal offence and what is that criminal offence it is one of the it is the serious offense on the land and you commit a high treason prince that one you do not commit treason you commit a high treason you commit a high treason under article three cross three that is if you are bet if you conspire if if if you prepare if you commit the main offense against the constitution what is the supreme law then you commit serious offense and that offense is known as high crime and high crime is tried by three high treason his commit is tried by three high-qualities you commit a height reason and it is and it is conducted by three high court judges and they all three four convicts that that you lent in criminal law it doesn't apply in autism or convict ultra foreign meaning i've been tried i've been acquainted i've been convicted and you cannot bring another child against me it's not a defense when a charge of a child of high treason is preferred against somebody the reason is that where a person is charged with high treason and at the end of the day other offenses are available upon which the person could be convicted the law says don't convict apart from high prison in all other cases you must acquit the person and if the person is acquainted it does not absorb the person from being persecuted for other offences so this is exception to the altar for our country for our convict principle that once up once i've been tried the same fact i've been happy or convicted i cannot be be rearranged before a court it does not apply it is not a defense when we talk about order for our acquaintance or travel convict then another important area of law that you must know is citizenship article 6 citizenship who is a citizen of ghana because not long ago not long ago when we were discussing who can invoke the enforcement or interpretative jurisdiction of the supreme court we mentioned a citizen so we must know who is a citizen of ghana who is a citizen of ghana the general principles regretting citizenship is that some countries may use breath breath priest of breath that is where the the land on which you were born the soil that is juiced solely juice soon others will use descent by blood descent by bread juice sandwiches and others will also use law to make other people citizens so citizenship are determined by the land on which you were born the bread that is whether your mother your father your grandfather or grandmother was a was a citizen and the third one a law that has been made to convey citizenship so citizenship are mainly determined based on these three guidelines they are determined based on these three guidelines so let's look at ghana who is a citizen of ghana who is a citizen of ghana when we talk about citizenship it is very very important and crucial because nobody nobody is born stateless everybody must belong to a country everybody might belong to a country and we need loss to greet human beings so that a person may not say that i am stateless everybody must belong to a country so let's look at the loss on the land when we talk about citizenship the loss on citizenship in ghana we are talking about the constitution the constitution their constitution that is article 6 7 8 2 10. that is citizenship then we also talk about the um we we talked about the constitution of the republic of ghana amendment act 1996 if you remember in 1996 the constitution was amended by act 527 by at 527 to permit dual citizenship before the amendment to the constitution citizen of ghana must owe allegiance only to ghana by the amendment to the constitution that is the constitution of the republic of ghana amen amendment act 1996 at 527 introduced do have citizenship so again we hold do our citizenship it has its advantages and disadvantages are mentioned some of them then we have the citizenship act 2000 we have the citizenship act 2000 at 591 at 591 at 591 then we also have the citizenship regulations citizenship regulations li 1690 1690 so let's look at who is a citizen of ghana who is a citizen of ghana if we look at the constitution article 6 has signed up but it is the citizenship act which explains them in detail every person who on the community force of this constitution was a citizen of ghana shall continue to be a citizen of ghana when a a person was it was a ghanaian before they're coming into force of the constitution then the person shall continue to be again how do we determine whether a person was again what before they're coming into force of their constitution if we look at the citizenship act it uses ghana uses landmark the country uses landmark to confess citizenship it uses landmark to confess citizenship join the meeting so let's look at it persons who were ghanaians before 6th of march 1957 because 6th of march is a landmark in our history that is the first time that we had our own constitution so if you were a ghanaian before 6th of march 1957 then on the coming into force of the constitution on 6th of march 1957 you became again then we had the second republican constitution in 1969 22nd of august 1969. so those who were born after the coming into force of the 1957 constitution they became ghanaians so if you look at the 1969 constitution which is also one of the landmarks it says that persons born on or after 6th of march 1957 but before 22nd august 1969 so if you were a citizen of ghana before 6th of march 1957 you were you became a citizen of ghana but if you were born after six of march you were again in and we needed a landmark to identify them that is why we say that but before 22nd of august 1969 that is from the from the time that we had our constitution up to the second republican constitution if you were born during that time anyway ghanaian then you continue to be a ghanaian then there is a gap between the coming into force of the constitution of 1969 the second republican constitution and the third republican constitution i believe you know that the third republican constitution came into force on 24th september 1979. so the constitution says that those who were born on or after 22nd of august 1969 and before 24th september 1979 they are also ghanaians because we needed landmarks to identify some people and these are the landmarks then after 24 september 1979 people were born until the 1992 construction came into force on 7th january 1993 so they must also be classified or they must also be clarified with landmarks so it says that persons born on or after 24th september that is after they tell the republican constitution had come into force and before 7 january 1993 they are also ghanians now we have come to their coming into force of the 1992 constitution which is on seven january so if you if you were born effective seventh january 1993 then under the constitution you shall continue to be again if you were a ghanaian or a parent or was a ghanaian and at the time you were born that parent had not renounced his or her ghanaian citizenship then you are again so that is the first mood of acquisition that is citizenship by death that this is an aspect of citizenship by death ghana when we talk about citizenship by beth we are talking about two things the first one is the one i've summed up those who were born before 1957 then between 57 and 69 then 69 and 79 and 79 and and 7th january 1993 they are if you were born and a parent or grandparent depending depending at that particular time the definition of who was a citizen then you are a citizen of ghana and you and you you are a citizen of ghana by betty of beth by best means either a mother or father or grandmother or grandfather depending on the regime once again that made you again then the second element of citizenship by beth is what we refer to as fountains foundations f o u n d l i n g s foundlings the law is that if a person is seven yes or below seven please it is not those under seven the law says seven or under seven if a person is seven years or under seven years then the person is found on the on the land any part of ghana that person becomes again if the person is a chinese and nigerian once you cannot identify the appearance of that person the appearance of that person are unknown and the person has been found in ghana then you say that foundlings so when we talk about citizenship by death we are talking about the first one i treat together with foundations so by beth includes those whose parents grandparents depending on the regime up to 1993 were ghanaians as far as those who were found and they were seven years old under seven whose parents or grandparents are unknown we consider them as citizenship by beth now we move today other one citizenship by adoption citizenship by adoption when we see citizenship by adoption it means that somebody has been adopted the person is not a ghanaian but has been adopted by again and therefore the person is becoming a ghanaian but there is there is an explanation their risk and explanation the law in ghana as provided by the children's act as provided by the children's acts at 5 16 as amended by acts 9 37 the children's act at 5 60 as amended by the children's amendment act 2016 act 937 is that only the high court has the power to grant adoption to entertain matters on adoption and what is adoption adoption in ghana means a person who is under 18 is being abducted by a ghenian so the person may be a tubulis a nigerian an irish and ghanaian is adopting that person if the union is abducted and the person is under 18 then a ghanaian can adopt you can adopt any person under 18 years but to qualify as a citizen of ghana the law is that at the time the ghanian adopted that person that person was under 60 years please listen you can adopt somebody from maybe from the time of death up to under 18. but the person will not become a ghanaian automatically the person automatically becomes a ghanian when the person is under 16 years and the person is abducted by again so if you are of system and you are under 18 and you are adopted by by again you will not become a ghanaian unless you register to become a ghanaian under the laws on the land so the second to the third one is abduction that is children under 16 and not under 18. even though adoption you can adopt under 18 to qualify to be again in you must be under 16 that one it is automatically automatically granted then the other one we call it citizenship by registration citizenship by registration you are not a ghanaian you want to be again in then you are proud to be a ghanaian there are conditions that you must fulfill the citizenship act has explained them in detail but because it is tutorials i can't spend my time on on it so please when you go read citizenship by registration then the other one record it so the registration it could be married it could be those who those who have been adopted but of 16 that are under 18 years they can adopt we can register all of them we can register all of them then the other one is citizenship by naturalization you naturalize you are not a ghanaian and but uh you've come to ghana you're a person of food age and capacity and you make an application that you have lived in ghana for a continuous period of 12 months preceding the time that you made the the application and you should have lived in ghana for an aggregate of five years during the seven years preceding the period of the of the application then you must demonstrate that you are a person of good character then we need to guardians to certify that indeed you're a person sen of good character then you go through you go through vetting if it is granted then you become a citizen of ghana by naturalization by naturalization then as i mentioned to you that the amendment which was made the amendment which was made permitted dual citizenship the amendment which was made to the citizenship act allowed drawer civilization in ghana dual citizenship meaning if you are a ghanaian you can belong to another country you can hold nigerian citizenship in addition to ghana you can hope to go to go you can hold south africa our laws permit dua and not multi drug citizenship and not multi-citizenship so that is act 527 the constitution of the republic of ghana amendment acknowledging disease at five to seven committed to our citizenship and we all know that when it comes to dual citizenship there are positions that you cannot hold there are positions that you cannot hold you cannot be a supreme court judge you cannot be an ambassador you cannot be a high court judge you cannot be a member of parliament you cannot be any of the service chiefs that is you cannot be uh respected general of police commissioner for customs exercise and preventive service director controller general immigration then if you are in the ghana army the rank of kenya and above and this equivalent in navy and air force you cannot now there was this prohibition section 162 m of r591 which permitted that is the law has permitted the um has permitted parliament to confess or to enlarge the scope of the dual citizenship now parliament can also enacted the law and conveyed that right on minister of interior to exercise if you will remember i serve as attorney general asari versus attorney general 2012 one supreme court donald report 460. prophecy sorry went to the supreme court that an agent cannot delegate delegate a power given to that agent to exercise their power is given to parliament to determine the scope of public officers who cannot have dual citizenship so on what basis should parliament grant that power to minister of interior under section 162m so if you read the law section 16 2m you found it in the law but it has been struck out by the by the supreme court as unconstitutional as unconstitutional then if you have dua citizenship i said that you cannot become a member of parliament and we have this key sumara behavior versus versus at the mudra money and there is one which is ongoing the ascent one the high court has determined it is now to be [Music] to be sent to the court of appeal to determine in the size of his appellate jurisdiction if you're a ghanaian you can also renounce that is what we call renunciation of ghanaian citizenship you can renounce your citizenship but you must comply with law apart from you renouncing apart from citizenship by death that is the one i took you through together with foundlings these two we call them citizenship by death apart from these two we can deprive you of your citizenship why why because you have naturalized you have registered but you have putting up a conduct which is unbecoming in that sense the law permits the attorney general to initiate an action and please the action is initiated by the attorney general and when it is initiated by the attorney general it is fought in the high court it is only the high court that has exclusive or regional jurisdiction to entertain when an action is brought to deprive a person who became a ghanaian by registration or naturalization so if you are again in and you have not been deprived of your citizenship you cannot be deported so that is why these uh cases the old case is balugan and others very say and another ladam vs attorney general and others all these cases they said they were getting they said they were ghanaians the matter were pending before the the then high court then out of the blue they were deported so can you deport again no you cannot deport a ghanaian from his own land unless the person is is first and foremost the pride of his citizenship in accordance with law by the high court but if it is citizenship by death nobody can deprive you because if we deprive you where do you go you don't have any place to go if you have acquired citizenship elsewhere they can rather deprive you so this one the law is that no country can deprive a person who acquires solution by death of his or her nationality in that country so that is why those who did constitutional history you talk about balogun and other others were said do say in another ladan versus attorney general and others shall be another best attorney general all these cases they were to defect that they were citizens they should have deprived them before deporting them but they did not comply that is why we whenever we are talking about um [Music] fundamental human rights in respect of citizens of ghana we talk about these cases we talk about these cases so that is for us chapter four so we are moving to chapter five we are moving to chapter five fundamental human rights and freedoms chapter five fundamental human rights and freedoms fundamental human rights and freedoms when we talk about fundamental human rights we talk about fundamental human rights we are talking about inalienable rights we are talking about inalienable rights that is right that rights that have been confirmed on us by virtue of being of being a human being once you're a human being then that's right is given to you fundamental human rights it is given to you by virtue of being one of the human race so once you are of human rights whether you are a ghanaian or not then we must accord you that's right let me give you a brief background for you to appreciate i believe you've done it but be being revision let me talk about it briefly you know fundamental human rights developed through history particularly the natural law school the natural law school where you have thomas aquinas you have saint augustine's then some of the muslims do you have abu mansu abu mansu and some of them they propounded fundamental man right that we were created by god so once we are created by god then god has given us some rights that cannot be taken away by any person that brought about the natural law school so when the first world war came and most people perished they died then there was the need to have a document to regret the rights of human beings so that what about the first world war the whole world decided to come together to form a union to promote to protect the right of human beings then in the course of in the course of time there came the second world war so they said the first world war 1914 to 1918 the fox there was this international body which was formed the international body could not protect human beings now look at what has happened so the whole world we must come together and that brought about the the the u.n chatter the u.n the united nations chatter which was formed in 1945. if you read the chatter it talks about fundamental human rights the basic thing is that the world had experienced war not less than two times and had brought untold harshest to the people and for them to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights in the dignity and wealth of human beings then there was the need to ensure that the un protest their rights fundamental human rights of all human beings having done so then they came with a soft law when we say a soft law it happens to your conscience it doesn't bind you but it appears to your conscience that you must you even though it doesn't bind you as a force of law your conscience my your consciousness must tell you that this is this one should operate you must give effect to it that brought about the universal declaration of human rights that if you look at the the universal declaration of human rights that is the first soft document on fundamental human rights this is the first document on fundamental human rights and if you read the preamble it says human beings recognize the inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family it is the foundation of freedom justice peace in the world so here we are talking about inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family that is that that is the foundation of freedom justice and peace in the world so we must respect the fundamental human rights of people we must respect the fundamental human rights of people so if you look at our chapter five all the things that we have from chapter five chapter five true sorry chapter five that is from articles 12 through 33 we borrowed them from the fundamental human rights and in ghana as i said the fundamental human rights the the investor declaration it is a soft law but in ghana it is abandoned instrument because supreme court and the courts have quoted almost every provision once it is quoted by the supreme court or or by the high court or court of appeal and has not been reversed it becomes binding so almost all the provisions have been quoted so in ghana we cannot describe the universal declaration as a soft law by verity of having allowed ourselves to be persuaded and therefore having used them in decided cases so when we talk about fundamental human rights here i want to make a small uh distinction for you when we talk about fundamental human rights it is the high court which has jurisdiction to enforce fundamental human rights provisions please listen every court every court has the right every court has the right to enforce fundamental human rights provision in a matter before it every court has the right to info to enforce fundamental human rights provision in a matter pending before that court but if you are going to call to enforce it specifically then it is the high court for example the the right to be right to fundamental right to freedom of movement that that has brought about bill and other matters it is a fundamental human right but if if somebody is arraigned before the district court there is a matter before the district court and once it is a fundamental human rights issue before the district court the district court can enforce it that is why a district court can entertain matters of bill and determine it is a fundamental human right issue but the question is if if that court is entertaining a matter and the issue of fundamental human rights issue cropped up then that court has jurisdiction but if you are going to initiate an action purposely to enforce fundamental human rights provision that is where the high court has exclusive original jurisdiction so here we will talk about protection of fundamental human rights the executive legislature judiciary demands unfortunate and all the courts must enforce it then protection of right to life you must protect human beings but if um you protect to the extent that you are defending yourself and it is proportionate to the attack then that's why you have self-defense if you have self-defense it is it is absolute defense but if uh provocate you all know that provocation classification and all those they are partial defenses in indeed indeed when you talk about uh intersection provocation there are no defenses but there are defenses only in other cases to reduce it to manslaughter and they have impartial defenses but under article 13 right to life everybody must leave but if you are coming to take away my life or to take away my property and i defend myself proportionately and you die it is self-defense self-defense is absolute defense then protection of personal liberty why do we imprison people why the court has the power to imprison even though it is a right the court may detain you the court may remind you then we talk about respect for human dignity respect everybody because we are human beings as we discuss from the from the fundamental human rights provision respect for human dignity we are human beings and respect everybody don't subject any anybody to torture any human degrading treatment then when it comes to questions of juveniles i believe you know juvenile a juvenile is a person under 18 who is in conflict with the law a person under 80 who is in conflict with the law so if a person is under 18 years then the person must be detained or when the person is kept in lawful custody the person shall be separated from adults shall be separated from adult prisoners they must be separated from adult prisoners so when somebody is under 18 when somebody is of 18 you cannot arrange them together or you cannot detain them them together we don't remand juveniles we don't imprison juveniles we detain them detention so some of you who if you read your criminal law and we come to we come to types of punishment you will see uh imprisonment fines compensation detention the detention day we are not referring to pde we are referring to juveniles then we have protection from the sorry 18 let me talk about 18 first then we talked about eight um 17 equality and freedom no discrimination don't discriminate against everybody then 18 another important provision you have a right to own property and you shall not be interrupted you should not interfere with somebody's communication correspondence or what other things when we talk about interference with somebody it is a fundamental human right but if it is for other reasons for example where it is for uh criminal purposes we are being recorded because you are going to do an arthritis criminal which is immura which is illegal and you are recorded you cannot take refuge under article 181 you cannot take refuge under article 18 1. the reason is that if you read article 18 2 it gives exceptions it gives exceptions to the general rule it gives exceptions to the general rule and we have there are several cases there are several cases on that aspect of the law then apart from that one then we move on to fair trial fair trial you have discussed it in criminal law please attachment in this fair trial it applies to criminal and quasar criminal trials and not several trials then we move on to protection from the probation of property then general fundamental human rights there are several cases emanating from those provisions then property rights of spouses property rights of spouses where property is going to have privately married how should that property be governed if it comes to desolation of marriages what should be done then after 203 administrative justice administrative justice where we use administrative bodies to complement the course to determine matters what are they supposed to observe and the law says that they must act very and reasonably if you read awani versus i will believe that is why it is on administrative justice then economic rights educational rights culture rights women's rights children's rights right of the sick then you come to how to enforce them under articulated the threat articulated let's say how do we enforce fundamental human rights fundamental human rights provision are enforceable by the high court that means you are going to court purposely for the enforcement of of a provision in that sense you go to the high court that was why being bombuta versus generally got cancer it was enforcement of its right and who and if you read article 3 it says that a priest here listen to that we have a person here but the meaning given to that person is different from the a person under article two articulated the three one says that when a person alleges that a provision of this constitution under fundamental human rights and freedom has been is being or likely to be contravened in relation to him if it concerns you then you go to the high court for example when bombuta is the maliga cancer the the matter that the bombuta wanted to enforce he was one he was one of the victims so it's it's iterated to him so once you are one of them then we must go to high court you must go to the high court if you are one of them one of the africans seeking that remedy that was why his case was struck out as incompetent now when we come to the enforcement of fundamental human rights here a person here means every person what we say that the person here means every person whether citizen or non-citizen of ghana it is fundamental human rights it is it is meant for everybody it is meant for everybody not for interpretation or enforcement of the constitution this one it is an inalienable right and we are just enforcing the soft law the universal declaration of human rights so anybody at all can take advantage of articulated rate anybody at all can take advantage of the territory provided it risks to that person but if you want to take advantage of attributed and you are not one of those people to be affected then you go and you go to the supreme court you appreciate it is very very important all fundamental human rights enforcement are made by the high court but where the it does not relate to the african and it is of national importance or public nature such as if you look at a giant versus a me where people were carrying a night soil toilet and he said that no to him it values the fundamental human right he wasn't one of them if he if you were one of them he would have gone to the high court if you are not one of them then you go for enforcement jurisdiction and the article too so please if you are going for the enforcement of the supreme enforcement jurisdiction you are going to invoke the enforcement jurisdiction of the supreme court and it is on fundamental human rights then it must not it must not concern the african if it concerns you you go to the high court if it is of public interest and you are not one of them that is where you go to the supreme court for its enforcement and in that sense supreme court has exclusive original jurisdiction the supreme court has exclusive original jurisdiction now let's talk about article 11 sources of law is when we talk about sources of law they have not been arranged in hierarchical order they have not been arrested in hierarchical order what we have under article 11 they are what we call primary sources of law primary scholars of law and the primary sources of law we have the constitution then we have enactments made by or under the authority of parliament established by this constitution here parliament can sponsor its own bill and come out with an act all private persons will sponsor a bill now now we've heard about the lgbti bill which has been sponsored by by private persons so here we are talking about it wasn't made by parliament it was made under the authority of parliament that is why if you read article 12 be it not 11b sorry enactments made by or under the authority of parliament then the third one we talked about orders rules and reberations when we talk about orders rules and regulations we are talking about delegated legislations or subsidiary subsidiary legislation they are the same delegated subsidiary or subordinate legislations which we call the sea ice and the allies please bear in mind executive instrument hasn't got legislative power executive instruments cannot exist in orders rules and regulations because they lack executive they lack legislative power they are not laid before parliament for 21 citing this every other rules and regulations that is ci or li why do you call some of them ci why because some of them lr requires some of them ci because they derive their authority from the constitution if the constitution authorizes a body to come out with a law not an act a lower law to regret itself then you derive your assault from the constitution and when you make such a law you lay it before parliament for 216 days under attack 11 7 21 16 days and when it matures if your authority is from the constitution it becomes ci if your authority is from an act of parliament it becomes li legislative instrument now the allies and the cis the law may say that l i o c i in the form of others in the form of rules in the form of regulation for example let me refer you to article 1 5 7 of the constitution he talked about rules of court committee the rules of court committee the composition is there and they have to make rules by constitutional instruments they are to make rules by constitutional instrument that is why the rules of court if you come to the high court the high court is regretted by ci this record is regretted by ci constitutional instrument because the rules of court made it under attack 157 of the constitution and that is why we see you go to the district court or high court this is called ci 59 high court is ci 47 and you see other one other two other three so here it is constitutional instrument constitutional instrument in the form of others but if you come to the court of appeal and supreme court court of appeal russia 19 supreme court russia system they are rules so when you are quoting ci you say rule 1 rule two rule three so but if you take the electoral commission into account electoral commissioner is supposed to come out with regressions and they derive the assault from the constitution so when they make ci and you are quoting it you quote it regression one regression two regression three and if it is c i or l i in the form of all this rules and regression and it is not laid before pyramid for twenty one sixteen days is not mature to become a law it shall not mature that is mainstream basis electoral commission it used to be even as a human services electoral commission but it has been reported in the supreme court of ghana law report as man some basis electoral commission where dr farijan in this cruising time when he was supposed to have organized this assembly election then he founded the uh ci before the before parliament it it was laid before parliament for 21 days but that 21 the experiment has started for 10 days and the law says 21 sitting days so that was why supreme court struck it out as unconstitutional because it did not mature it matures when it is lived before parliament for 21 16 days my empowerment does not set date does not run time runs when only when parliament says when other rules or regression in the form of either c i o l i is lead before parliament now the then we talk about number three or four the existing law we have several laws in existence we have several of them before the coming into force of the constitution we had rules of general uh english status of general application we have the ordinances then we have the constituent assembly please whenever you come across the law known as ce constituent assembly that means they were made between the time ghana had independence up to the time ghana had republic they did that sorry ghana's independence up to a day before ghana had its republic so from 1957 to 6th march 1957 to 30th june 1960 or they lost me they were made by the constituent assembly that is why we call them ca then after they see it then ghana had its first republican constitution that's why we started with the acts so when we talk about we talk about existing laws it includes status of general application the ordinances then let's see is then we come to nantes we come to 1960 we have some of the ass which have not been repealed then we have delegated legislations under them then we have nlc laws then we had 1969 some of the acts including the citizenship act which which was amended then we have the worst act the worst act was was made during the second republican constitution and it continues to form part of the law then we have the matrimonial causes act all of them were made and they continue to form part of the law then uh we have nrc for example the evidence law the heavy law on evidence the evidence act nrcd 175 it was made during the time of um general champion nrc so we have all this law up to pndc type which are in resistance all this existing law that is what we call the existence that is what we call the existing law so please that is why we say that article 11 is not a read in iraqi order so when we talk about the supremacy of the constitution it is not by article 11 because you cannot say that ci is ci is higher than existing law can you say that ci is superior to to the matrimonial causes act to the evidence act it is impossible so they have not been arranged in in iraqi order then after the existing law then we move on to the common law please we have common law and we have common law of ghana so the common law of ghana is made up of three it's made up of the rules they were known as common law their rules they were known as equity and cosmic law including those determined by the su by the superior course so when we talk about sources of law these are the primary sources of law these are the primary sources of law in the country and if you want to arrange them in in iraqi order we have the constitution first because after the one says so then all acts of parliament whether existent or made another 1992 constitution all of them come together acts of parliament then then the third one orders rules and regression delegated legislation and the fourth one is common law if you want to arrange them in in a heretical order that is the arrangement now this is the primary law then we have the secondary law what are these secondary laws secondary law the most important among them is what we call sterile decisions scary decisions scary decisions decisions by cause of record decisions by court of reports then we talk about bylaws this is assembly by laws then um this is assembly by laws directive directions issued by organizations that is why the court when we issue practice direction it is considered as part of the secondary laws on the land some of you who are abreast of the loss on bills bills you come across the practice direction issued by the chief justice under the hand of the chief justices they are all secondary sources of law and they include just books journals real free articles all of them come under the secondary sources of law so when you are asked to talk about sources of law the one in the constitution is the prime resource and those i've talked about they are the second race also so in that sense you talk about the two both primary and secondary sources of the law having said sue i will discuss one of them which is very very important theory decisions judicial president judicial president when we talk about judicial precedence we look at it from two angles we have binding decisions and persuasive decisions binding decisions and persuasive decisions when we say a decision is binding a binding decision that means the court what is confronted with a matter is bound by a decision previously delivered in respect of the same subject matter so let me start from this even though i shouldn't but i want you to understand please all foreign cases all foreign decisions have only persuasive effects on our court all foreign decisions have only persuasive effect on our courts so where the supreme court of america the supreme court of ingram now behalf of supreme court if they deliver a judgment and you come to the ghanaian court my lord it binds you it doesn't bind the new court in ghana it has only persuasive effect on the cost in ghana i'm starting from the supreme court at times people get it wrong that supreme court is not banned by its own decision please listen number one supreme court is banned by its own previous decision but it may depart but it may depart when it appears right to do so so supreme court is normally banned by its own decision supreme court is normally bound by its own decision when you go read article 129 when you go read article 129 cross thread supreme court is not it's normally bound by his own decision but it may depart when it appears its right to do so meaning when supreme court is departing from his previous decision it must assign reason because it is normally binding on it then so whenever supreme court gives decision it binds the supreme court he said but supreme court may depart from his own decision when he deems its right to do so but supreme court decision binds all calls below the supreme court and they cannot say they will not depart they will not follow all decisions so when supreme court delivers a government it binds the supreme gods itself but it may depart but all other course it binds them and they cannot depart that is the first one then number two number two the high court sorry the court of appeal is banned by its own decisions the court of appeal is bound by its own decisions that is article 1 36 cross 5. when court of appeal delivers judgments it binds the court of appeal when caught vape delivers that man it binds the court of appeal and all caused below it but court of appeal has only paid a decision by the court of appeal has persuasive effect on the supreme court supreme court may have may allow itself to be persuaded or not persuaded so when you write a question of that sort you must explain that when court of appeals delivered judgment it binds the court of appeal and all goes below it and that judgment does not burn supreme court but it has only persuasive effect on the supreme court there is an exception here whenever court of appeal delivers a decision a ruling in interlocutory appeals it doesn't bind the court interlocutory decisions of the court of appeal does not bind the court of appeal there is this case far messed versus something something there are several authorities whenever a court of appeal delivers interlocutory decision it doesn't bind the court of appeal but whenever i whatever pay delivers a final decision it binds the court of appeal and all goes below it let's move to high port whenever the high court delivers judgment whenever a judgement is delivered by the high court it binds all the lower costs decisions of the high court bans or the lower courts but it doesn't bind the high ports high court decision does not bind the high court but rather it has persuasive effect on the high court persuasive effect on the court of appeal persuasive effect on the on the supreme court you may allow yourself to be persuaded or you may not allow yourself to be persuaded that is why we say it has only peace it may persuade you but if i say that oh i've seen this high court decision and i'm a high court judge i think i think it's a good decision i will allow myself to be persuaded in that sense it will persuade me but if i think that is not peace with me because i disagree i will say that i will not allow myself myself to be persuaded so whenever high court delivers the judgment it doesn't bind the high court it doesn't bind the court of appeal it doesn't bind the supreme court it has only persuasive effect on them but it binds the lower cops then whenever regional tribunal delivers a decision whenever regional tribunal delivers a judgment priest original tribunal continues to form part of the laws on the land even though it has become more rebound in practice in practice we don't have them but in but in the eyes of the law they continue to form part of the laws on the land so where a regional tribunal delivers a judgment it doesn't ban it it doesn't bind the original tribunal but it binds all the lower courts it it may pass through the high court it may pay suite the court of appeals may pay suite the supreme court it will persuade the arena tribunal itself but it doesn't bind any one of them please the lower costs are not costs of record the lower costs are not cost of record and therefore do not create binding or persuasive decisions they neither create binding or persuasive decisions because they are not cost of record if you look at attack 126 the people of ghana through the constitution created supreme court court of appeal high court and regional tribunal and gave power to parliament to go and create lower part so apart from these four any court in ghana is a lower court so if you go to section 39 section 39 of the of the course act that is where parametric advantage and created lower costs and they created the circuit court the district court the juvenile court and the chieftaincy tribunals and all other courts such as the military tribunals the court master all of them they are inferior tribunals please when we are talking in terms of the courts we call them lower courts and not inferior courts in 1969 the constitution made them inferior accords 1979 the constitution made them inferior cause by the 1992 constitution made them lower cost their name if it is just nomenclature they are lower costs because their jurisdiction is limited they are inferior cause because they are is limited inferiority in terms of jurisdiction and not in terms of those assets but in ghana the people use it derogatory that was why under the 1992 constitution they decided not to use the term inferior but rather use the term lower court still we see still you see students writing inferior court if you write inferior caught in ghana you are wrong in uk they continue to call them inferior court but the constitution says article one two six let me find it and read after 126. the judiciary share consists of the superior court of judicature the supreme court court of appeal the high court and the regional tribunal such lower costs or tribunals experimentally by law established so such lower costs it did not see such inferior courts now for the composition please read the composition and generalization of the supreme court supreme court has supervised naturalization over all course in ghana it has it has providence new jerusalem over all course in ghana it has appellate jurisdiction from the court of appeal please listen supreme court has apparent jurisdiction in all matters from the court of appeal with the exception of creation of boundary under attack 46 and creation of boundary and parliamentary election disputes that's one court of appeals final jurisdiction final jurisdiction apart from these two any decision from the court of appeal is appealable to the supreme court and all appeals from the judicial committee of the national associatives go to the supreme court then when it comes today when it comes to the um the high part a piece from high court or a piece from high court go to the court of appeal with the exception of treason and high treason court of app whenever high court he has matters on treason and high treason that's when you appeal to the supreme court appears from high court in respect of treason and high treason you appeal to the supreme court and not the court of appeal but in all cases their appeals go to the court of appeal in all cases the appeals go to the court of appeal then it has original jurisdiction in parliamentary story in presidential election dispute a task original jurisdiction in presidential election district after all you have observed to so you know then when it is um under attacker 135 of the constitution production of official documents production of official document it is the supreme court that has exclusive original jurisdiction it is the supreme court that has exclusive original jurisdiction then in ghana it is only the supreme court that has revealed jurisdiction it is only the supreme court which can reveal his own decisions please until recently the rules of court purported to confirm review jurisdictions on the district court the circuit called the high court and the court of appeal but it has been revoked ci 134 has revoked the review jurisdiction of the district court and this record cannot reveal its decision because the concession did not provide the course i did not provide but rather the rules of god that is why the rules of court latter part of last year decided to revoke because because it's because it was not sanctioned by any law then when we come to the high court order 42 which was on review jurisdiction that one two has been revoked by ci 133 now high court cannot reveal his own own judgment under under order 42 it has been revoked then when you come to the court of appeal whatever appeals jurisdiction to review has been revoked by ci132 so only the supreme court has the power to review his own decision so supreme court has original appellate supervisory and review jurisdiction so it has these four jurisdictions but court of happy has only appellate jurisdiction court of appeal has only appellate jurisdiction please also contempt every court every superior court in ghana has the power to commit for content once it is against its proceedings or before that code when it is contempt it is not original jurisdiction when it is content content of the high court high court can convict you contempt of the original tribunal original tribunal can convict you content of the court of appeal the court of appeal can convict you if you read this case republic versus high court kumasi es party has republic versus high court kumar says party has 2015 2016 supreme court ghana law report it now it is unambiguously stated that the jurisdiction to commit for content is not original and any appellate court whose jurisdiction has been abused has the power to commit that person for condemns so let me talk briefly about chapter 6 chapter 6 of the constitution directive principles of state policy directive principles of state policy please when we talk about directive principles of state policy what is it about directive principles of state policy means that aspires to attain free states in future so why are you here why are you attending this lecture because you want to pass you want to pass what examination the entrance is amazing to what to the law school to do or to become a lawyer so all the objectives that guidance is to achieve economic political association that is what we have under chapter 6 of the constitution which we call the directive principles of state policy we have political objectives that in politics we want to achieve we don't want to have ghana as a one-party state then we run upon cool detail then make reasonable assets to all persons in ghana to make use of the law then let everybody observe the fundamental human rights these are the political objectives we receive to achieve their economic objective fair remuneration or ensuring that individuals private sector then every development we develop agriculture then people are made happy then we guarantee ownership of property and the right of inheritance all of them come under economic objectives then we move on to social objective freedom equality probity accountability these are the things that we want to achieve then we move on to 38 educational educational objectives f key now we have we have free compulsive basic education now we have three excesses all these are educational objectives that we want to achieve then cultural objectives cultural practices which are obnoxious should be aborigines then the other customs we should improve upon them to identify our identity to to demonstrate our identity then 40 is on international relations we cannot live in isolation we cannot live in isolation that is why we are members of the un eu commonwealth so we must respect their treaties any treaty the aims and objectives of the u.n we must we must obey them african uh unity echoes commonwealth we must we must obey all of them then 41 if you have good objectives and your citizens are bad people you will never achieve them so after 41 imposes duties of a citizen always we talk about our right enjoyment our right what about duties promote the good name of ghana defend the constitution of ghana so honorable martin amir you saw him going to court fight off him in the interest of ghana so here he he went under attack 41 to uphold and defend this constitution and the law so these are the things that we have under the directive principles of state policy but this is not what i want you to understand now what i want you to understand is that the problem we have with the directive principles of state policy is what is the legal effects of the directive principles of state policy that is the problem the legal effect of the directive principles of state policy let me walk you through the theory of directive principles directive principles of state policy help countries to achieve their objectives that will lead them to free states so if you want to become a free state and you want to be seen as a developed country no more developing or terrible country then you must have your principles and these are the principles so we have three approaches in some jurisdictions in some jurisdictions directive principles of state policy are not justiciable and not necessarily when we say justiciability when we see just disability that's disabled meaning you can go to court in respect of that matter that's the ability go to court for editability to be made period so where it is not just where it is not justiceable that means you cannot go to court for a court to assume jurisdiction and make a determination on that matter the disability does not mean you have won you have lost enforcement no it is the ability to go to court for that matter to be determined so in some jurisdictions it is justiciable south africa directive principles of state policy they are meant to be justifiable so if you read the south african constitution it is stated black and white that they are just disabled if you read that of two if you read that of nigeria that of liberia cerebrum gambia it is stated black and white that they are not justiciable but in ghana it is not stated whether they are justiceable or not justiceable the expert who made the constitution proposed that they should not be justiciable but it was rejected you know they are three if you say that one one has been proposed i reject are you taking the second order we did not say that one in the constitution that has brought about why we always examine students on the legal effect of the directive principles of state policy because we don't know now the first case that came about was on political objective political objective so that case was the new patriotic party versus attorney general the new patriotic party based attorney general known as the 31st december case where public fund was to be used to celebrate the achievement of pndc which came to power through through cool data and mpp went to court that it offends other provisions including the political objectives of the directive principles of state policy so the attorney general reads an objection that the director of principles are not justiciable so you cannot come to court but the supreme court majority held that the directive principles of state policy are justiciable there is no provision in the constitution making them not non-justiciable so the first position that ghana took was that directive principles of state policy are justifiable that was a new patriotic party versus attorney general that defense december coup peace then there was a second case there was this second case new patriotic party based attorney general sibakis new patriotic party versus attorney general sibakis what happened in this case was that it was on the economic objective so supreme court went today sorry the mpp went to the supreme court for a determination and the objection was raised that it is not justiciable because that is so everywhere then supreme court ruled that when they are found in chapter six they are not by themselves justiciable you know the directive principles you get 99.7 of them in the other part of the constitution but when they are found in chapter six they are not meant to be justiciable so they were described as a mess back a messed bag you may have a corn and you and and and you may have a granola it means bad so when they are in chapter 6 they are not of by themselves justiciable meaning when they you are coming under chapter 6 then you cannot come go and go under another prohibition so ghana the three principles the first case said they are justiceable the second case is saying that they are not justiciable if they are found in chapter six but if they are found in other parts of the constitution then they are justiciable so the recent decision was rendered in the case of ghana lotto operators ghana lotto operators vs national lottery association ghana lotto operators versus national lutheran association in this case the supreme court stated the true position of the law that it is not stated in the constitution but they are presumptively justiciable so if you are called upon to explain the directive principles of state policy you start from mpp skills that are the first december that the courthouse that every provision is necessable but the zebra case he said no if they are found in chapter six they are not by themselves justiciable but the recent decision which is the true position of the law the directive principles of state policy are presumptively justifiable they are premised on presumptions so whenever the presumptions are made for example provide make tertiary education free for everybody if you do not have money can you make it you cannot so when the nation comes out of budget and we see surprise budget then you can go to court that look at this there's a presumption that we have money so so let's make it free so now if you are called upon to discuss the directive principles we are interested in the legal effects so the position now is that the directive principles are presumptively justifiable let me talk briefly about i'm supposed to close at three but let me talk briefly about presidential and parliamentary election i'll just spend five five eight minutes and wind up in ghana we organize public elections and public elections are organized by the electoral commission and we elect presidents and when we are electing presidents we all know the law regretting how how presidents the form they feel they nominate somebody as as a running meet then they go to the pool then the vote is cast if nobody gets more than 50 percent we go for for a runoff so assuming that we are going for a runoff and a party says that i am i am withdrawing what will happen the law says is that we must go for the run for that party for for that party to get 50 more than 50 percent broadcast so it could be 50 percent plus one person vote so where uh when nobody secures more than 50 percent we cannot elect president if you go three times we'll go and if one redraws it will not automatically be confirmed on the other we will still vote and ensure that the person who comes get 50 percent plus one vote or 50 class now where a person is elected and somebody is challenging the the election what do we do if we look at articles sister three of the constitution he says that let's look at it 64 is challenging election of the president the validity of the election of the president may be challenged only by a citizen of ghana who may present a petition for that purpose to the supreme court so here supreme court has exclusive original jurisdiction you present to the supreme court but the person here the person here the meaning has changed he says only by a citizen of ghana a citizen of ghana here now by virtue of biavity of ci9 by vector of cr99 now when it comes to parametry sorry presidential election dispute it is one of those who lost if you did not contest you cannot go so if you were a presidential candidate and you lost in that election then you could go if you were not one of them you cannot go so now we can have a loser against the winner and electoral commission so now that is the current position by virtue of cr-99 that is the position now the win a loser or loses against the winner and electoral commission now when it is heard by the supreme court supreme court can make several orders and when do you file presidential election dispute this this question is very simple but at times it seems to be confusing the law generally is that elections of elections are not so-called elections until they are gazetted so when there is an election the newspapers the the the prince media electronic media you hear them that this one has won he had this this one has won he had them please they are just they are just potential results they are not election results when electoral commission announces it is not it is not gazetted the results takes effect from the day that it is gazetted so if you want to challenge presidential election dispute you have 21 days from the day that the results haven't have been gazetted not the day that the results were decreased they did that the results were gas data so if you fire before it is gazetted it is void it is void so this one you've seen several of them you have you've come across come across and others versus ndc and others if it were now nbc couldn't have been a party that was why the amendment came this year 99 so if it were now ndc couldn't have been a party because now it is about persons losers arena and electoral commission if you are not one of them you cannot come now let's look at parliamentary election business whenever parliamentary elections are held as for this one you must be a ghanaian you know you must be a ghanaian if you are a dwarf citizenship you cannot you cannot you must be a ghanaian and if you are a ghanaian then there are conditions then if you contest and there is a dispute article 99 says that you fire a petition in the high court if you fire a petition in the high court and somebody is aggrieved by the outcome the person will appear to the supreme court a circle court of appeal and the court of appeals the final quote if you read a wouldn't see constituency election the career versus new macan all these cases are there now the problem is at what point in time can one challenge parliamentary election disputes at what point in time can one challenge parliamentary election dispute please if you get time read republic versus high quality expertise and nato roaring that one is about who is elite who is eligible and when does the eligibility starts is it at the party level or when electoral commission issues a rate that nomination should be filed and the law is that at the party's level it is just an intention but if you pick a form from electoral commission and you contest a new submit that is where you have demonstrated actual intention of becoming a member of parliament now you have contested you have lost or you did not contest you have lost or somebody has won you are not comfortable with it you want to challenge what do you do the law says that their results must be gazetted if the results have not been gazetted they are not deserted if you read the case of daniba daniba versus electoral commission and another the neighbor where uh the fans and the newspapers announced their the resource and the neighbor had lost it had not been gazetted then he fired a ptc then the high court dismissed it on the ground that at that time that you filed the petition there were no results because they became resource when they are gazetted so at the time that it was filed there was no there was no gazetted results and no declaration had been made so it was declared void now we have several cases if you look at a fair demand then the 21 days the 21 days aside from the day that the results are gazetted in the 21 days within the 21 days you must fire your petition please listen it's very very important you must file your petition then if you file the petition you are prior to the court within the same 21 days for you to pay cost into the into the register of the court that assuming at the end of the day you lose the case and you are unable to pay cause that amount will be used to pay to pay costs that will be awarded in favor of the victim so here the petition and security for cost must be paid within 20 21 days if it is if one of them is paid outside of 21 days or four hours 21 days it is void if you look at offer man versus the security for course was not paid within 21 days from the date of gazette and the whole thing was struck out as incompetent then in asante region any parliamentary election for i have already enough for i have origin north in the matter of petition by honorable richard versus accuracy advocacy and letter commission it is reported in 2015 87 ghana manchester united 17 court of appeal because it is the final court where the person fired petition within 21 days then he fired an application for security for course the judge had lost their father and the judge had traveled and he did not petition the chief justice to assign a debt at the time that the judge came the 21 days had lapsed but the judge granted it that it was his fault one day mata went to the court of appeal the law was that both must be found must be granted and fathered in 21 days so the high court did not have jurisdiction to grant extension of time so the action was decreed nor and void so whenever you are talking about parliamentary election this week look at the time that the matter may be filed and people with capacity that one we need capacity we need capacity to file petition the the first one is that a person who voted in that election can be challenged then the second one is that a person who claims who came to have a right to be elected at that election you can also contest then the third a person who alleges to have been a candidate in the election and also then the fourth one a person who claims that he had a right to be nominated as a candidate in the election then when it comes to the release to be granted by the court the court can say that the petition is void he may decree that person uh person who won the court may affair me or the court may dismiss the action or the person or the court may declare another person as winner so on the whole uh uh i've exhausted my time and doctor and it's also i'm done thank you very much thank you thank you my lord i must uh sincerely say that i have greatly benefited from your exposition uh traveling through various areas of our constitutional law from very fundamental to specific thematic areas and if i have uh benefited i am very uh sure that the students who are writing on tuesday have ones who greatly benefited so my lord uh having taken us using the linear approach from the very start right that way if not because of time i'm sure you are taking nothing to the very last chapter respectfully if we may take five minutes of your time for maybe one or two questions from uh one or two students before allowed to continue with your next engagement which you want to have started at three i don't know if we have all right we have the problem oh yes we can go yes uh please uh students we have a very limited time and for that matter we would like you to be very snappy and straightforward uh you know straight forward to the point if you want to speak just raise up your hand and then i will allow you to speak yeah so i can see so let's give two ladies and two gentlemen so that is balancing my lord can go charlima okay salina um hello sir yes yes please um please shalina please my question is whether the whole constitution as a whole can be um so if the citizens of ghana decide that we want to do away with the constitution and we want a new one is it possible okay no you can amend some parts for the portions which are um let me take the constitution and tell you that the provisions we have provisions on amendments we can amend the constitution but we cannot do away with the entire constitution okay thank you hello uh then let's take it chris uh chris okay christian is down no chris andrew uh chris so so if you get time read chapter 25 articles 289 290 there you can amend but you cannot change the entire conclusion hello dog yeah chris please thank you very much i would like um my love to explain um the idea that subsidiary legislation cannot amend a parent legislation thank you question when we talk about laws if you say subsidiary subsidiary means it means it stays below an act of parameters subsidiary delegated subordinates meaning it is lower to the outer parameter so the constitution and power experiment to come out with an axe then bodies may come out with lesser legislation but they must lay it before parliament so the reason is that even the names i guess that's when you talk about subsidiary meaning it is not at par with the main law to subsidiary or subordinate it is subordinate to act of environment so when they are in conflict let me give you an example at 32 provided attitude the legal profession act provided that when lawyers complete slu they must do people live for six months then the li provided that one year we said that no the li should follow the act the act was made in 1960 the li was made in 2018 even though recent the law is that once it is subordinate then it is inferior to an act of parameters okay thank you very much all right thank you my lord uh rosie uh rosie i hope you are late i think this [Music] yes yes go ahead yeah thank you very much [Music] hey yolo thank you for your nicest position but i want you to enlighten us a little bit about the argument on allegiance and citizenship just one second uh chris chris please meet your mic uh meet your mic chris i'm glad i want to meet you mike thank you rosie continue yes your lawsuit please i want a little enlightenment on the various arguments going around about allegiance and citizenship i want to see your take on that good you will not appreciate until you read the the expert report to the constitution they expect reported the constitution the constitution at the time that they expect me they had in mind that if you are not a foreigner you cannot hold allegiance to ghana and that and in that sense you should not hold other positions that was why that was why the constitution did not even even permit for dua citizenship but subsequently the conversation was amen was amended to permit dua citizenship so now you have to ask blow ups grab citizenship but the last thing is that once you hold your citizenship then you owe allegiance to another country in addition to ghana and if you owe allegiance to another country in addition to ghana then you should not hold sensitive positions such as you know i can hold dual citizenship because it doesn't apply to the court of appeal it is only only the supreme court but if you go to the service chiefs all of them directors chief directors all of them if you come to even in the army and this and this analogous embodies the air force and the navy kennels and above because of the sensitive nature so once you hold a position and that position has been has been outlined as one of the sensitive areas that a person holding that office should not owe allegiance to any other country apart from the government of apart from ghana then that person shall not shall not hold those offices so here the confusion is about citizenship and allegiance the citizenship and allegiance if you read the expert report it's it explains it vividly the reason is that if you are a citizen that's alone you know you may oh you may oh do an allegiance one to ghana one to togu but we want some people to owe holy allegiance to ghana to be able to hold particular offices right then finally we take kabna ameni kabram and we'll be like the last question and then we say a big thank you to his lawsuit for this privilege and my lord thank you so much um please um i'm taking you back to citizenship now now um you give us the types by birth funneling adoption registration and naturalization um i want to confirm from you if you can also have something like honorary compartment honorary confirmation as the pricing being confirmed as a citizen may be by the president no there is no such power confirmed on the president and once there is no such power the president cannot confess maybe but the president can give somebody an award an honor but not to give somebody ordinary citizenship because it is not prescribed it is not prescribed by any law before i wind up doctor i want to bring the attention to one thing i should have talked about but because of time constraints rule of law is very important thing but quite often some time ago there was a question to some students and they were firing when you talk about rule by law and rule of law always understand what we mean by magna carta which was signed in 2015 between 12 15 80 12 15 a.d magna carta 12 15 80. the importance of magna carta is that magna carta change rule rule by law to rule of law because it was a fight between between the queen and the queen the kings the monarchs and the barons the barons the dems and the nights the admissions and the bishops they fought it was a real war so when we talk about rule by law we are saying that everybody is under the law except those who are who are managing the law so the monarchs were above the law that is why in ghana we practice rule of law by validity of the benefit benefit we take under the magna carta the magna carta which was signed in 12 15 a.d the great chatter he talks about threatens rule of law the law is supreme everybody is under the law and we must use the law to protect and preserve fundamental human rights thank you right so on behalf of our students uh your worship sir professor this is dennis jay i would like to express profound gratitude to you for your time uh commitment to education of all those who want to become knowledgeable in the law in ghana and also our students who are struggling to get admission to the ghana school of law we have sincerely benefited from your exposition and analysis and would like to invoke god's blessings upon you for the sacrifice and the kindness we thank you very much for everything that you've done so student at 6 30 uh tonight we have tunisia amusu edward from gimpa law school he will be doing some uh questions and answers on law of contract to do i'll try the microsoft team sorted out before then so my lord thank you very much and all of you very much you are welcome my brother thank you