JUDGES
Embark On Reforms,Magistrates, Judges Told(8/2/2005)
This year’s Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association(CMJA)Council Meeting opened in Accra yesterday with a call on member states to embark on reforms to increase accountability,transparency,competition and choice by providing alternatives such as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and specialised courts.They should also ensure that their justice systems and processes have integrity,are transparent,honest, corruption-free and efficient.The Chief Justice,Mr Justice G.K. Acquah,who opened the meeting,said reforms should also streamline procedures by allowing the bulk of litigation,especially those involving simple cases,to be resolved swiftly and inexpensively in one or two hearings,while those reforms that increased resources should address incentives for judicial actors.“For it has been shown that implementing judicial databases that make cases easy to track and hard to manipulate or‘lose’,whether by accident or on purpose, helps to guard against sloppy procedures and corrupt officials,” he stated.The five-day meeting is on the theme, “Judicial reform within the Commonwealth -Impact,driving force and the future”,and is being organised by the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) and CMJA,in collaboration with the Judicial Service of Ghana.Among the participating countries are Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Cyprus, Canada,Malaysia,Cayman Islands, Trinidad,Northern Ireland, Lesotho,Scotland, Zambia, Bermuda,Sierra Leone,Cameroun,Belize, Barbados, Uganda, Kenya,Malawi and The Gambia.Mr Justice Acquah said an effective justice system was critical for the economic and social benefit of countries within the Commonwealth,since political maturity and social progress were inextricably linked to a strong judicial system.To ensure effective judicial reforms,he advocated judicial education that could inspire attitudinal change and play a more effective role in the development of judicial independence and further address fields not traditionally covered by university curricula but of growing significance for judicial action currently.The Chief Justice said it was not enough to change the “law in the books” in order to achieve real change.“We must be sure that the law has been correctly applied and the reform’s design coherently pursued,” he said.He said there was no doubt that the two main topics for discussion at the conference- delay in the administration of justice and judicial education- were quite critical to the effective reform of the respective judiciaries of participants.Explaining the need for judicial reform,Mr Justice Acquah said currently,the judiciary’s role in a democracy was seen as defending the rights of citizens against political majorities and protecting citizens from potential abuse by representative institutions and the majorities that controlled them.He noted that judicial power in a constitutional democracy played a vital role in checking political power, protecting and enforcing the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the citizens and holding even the scales of justice between the citizens and the state.He said to ensure a broader and effective protection of those rights and freedoms,most constitutions empowered the courts to go even beyond those principles expressly provided in the constitution and enforced other rights not specifically spelt out in the constitution.Mr Justice Acquah said those constitutional provisions apart, the world’s response to the September 11 and July 7 terrorist activities in the US and Britain,respectively, imposed on the judiciary extra responsibility to achieve a new equilibrium between the dictates of security and the individual’s civic rights and liberties.He treated the participants to Ghana’s chequered political history, characterised by military regimes, and indicated that it was not until the end of the 20th century that, in response to calls for judicial reforms to accelerate economic growth, the government set up the first sector reform project to promote reforms in the legal and judicial sectors.The first positive result of that project, he noted, was the establishment,on experimental basis,of the Fast Track High Court in 2000.He said the reform and modernisation of the Judicial Service had since then become a major priority,leading to the creation of the Reform and Project Management and Implementation Division in the administrative set up of the Judicial Service. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr J. Ayikoi Otoo,gave the participants some food for thought and asked them to be interested in judicial reforms in such areas as technology and automation of the courts to minimise the long delays associated with the judges taking notes by hand and the training of people to augment the work of police prosecutors.He said they should also be interested in the course contents of the law schools and inadequate funding to facilitate judicial independence,since the lack of resources affected the judiciary’s independence.The President of the CMJA, the Rt Hon Lord David Hope of Craighead,Scotland,spoke on three things, namely,the Commonwealth, the association and what the conference was about.He said the ties that bound the differenr groups of people in the Commonwealth together were its respect for the rule of law and independence of the judiciary,among others, which needed to be understood and practised.Rt Hon Lord Hope said the judiciary was responsible for ensuring that the principles of separation of powers and the rule of law did not become a lip service but were practised to the letter.He commended the Chief Justice for the various reforms in the judiciary and the planning committee of AMJG for hosting the conference in Ghana.Earlier in his welcoming address, Mr Justice Yaw Appau, the President of the AMJG, briefed the participants about Ghana,its terrain,people and climate and said although the participants were in Ghana specifically for the conference,they should take time off to visit places of historical importance and also savour the Ghanaian hospitality.
Story by Stephen Sah
Embark On Reforms,Magistrates, Judges Told(8/2/2005)
This year’s Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association(CMJA)Council Meeting opened in Accra yesterday with a call on member states to embark on reforms to increase accountability,transparency,competition and choice by providing alternatives such as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and specialised courts.They should also ensure that their justice systems and processes have integrity,are transparent,honest, corruption-free and efficient.The Chief Justice,Mr Justice G.K. Acquah,who opened the meeting,said reforms should also streamline procedures by allowing the bulk of litigation,especially those involving simple cases,to be resolved swiftly and inexpensively in one or two hearings,while those reforms that increased resources should address incentives for judicial actors.“For it has been shown that implementing judicial databases that make cases easy to track and hard to manipulate or‘lose’,whether by accident or on purpose, helps to guard against sloppy procedures and corrupt officials,” he stated.The five-day meeting is on the theme, “Judicial reform within the Commonwealth -Impact,driving force and the future”,and is being organised by the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) and CMJA,in collaboration with the Judicial Service of Ghana.Among the participating countries are Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Cyprus, Canada,Malaysia,Cayman Islands, Trinidad,Northern Ireland, Lesotho,Scotland, Zambia, Bermuda,Sierra Leone,Cameroun,Belize, Barbados, Uganda, Kenya,Malawi and The Gambia.Mr Justice Acquah said an effective justice system was critical for the economic and social benefit of countries within the Commonwealth,since political maturity and social progress were inextricably linked to a strong judicial system.To ensure effective judicial reforms,he advocated judicial education that could inspire attitudinal change and play a more effective role in the development of judicial independence and further address fields not traditionally covered by university curricula but of growing significance for judicial action currently.The Chief Justice said it was not enough to change the “law in the books” in order to achieve real change.“We must be sure that the law has been correctly applied and the reform’s design coherently pursued,” he said.He said there was no doubt that the two main topics for discussion at the conference- delay in the administration of justice and judicial education- were quite critical to the effective reform of the respective judiciaries of participants.Explaining the need for judicial reform,Mr Justice Acquah said currently,the judiciary’s role in a democracy was seen as defending the rights of citizens against political majorities and protecting citizens from potential abuse by representative institutions and the majorities that controlled them.He noted that judicial power in a constitutional democracy played a vital role in checking political power, protecting and enforcing the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the citizens and holding even the scales of justice between the citizens and the state.He said to ensure a broader and effective protection of those rights and freedoms,most constitutions empowered the courts to go even beyond those principles expressly provided in the constitution and enforced other rights not specifically spelt out in the constitution.Mr Justice Acquah said those constitutional provisions apart, the world’s response to the September 11 and July 7 terrorist activities in the US and Britain,respectively, imposed on the judiciary extra responsibility to achieve a new equilibrium between the dictates of security and the individual’s civic rights and liberties.He treated the participants to Ghana’s chequered political history, characterised by military regimes, and indicated that it was not until the end of the 20th century that, in response to calls for judicial reforms to accelerate economic growth, the government set up the first sector reform project to promote reforms in the legal and judicial sectors.The first positive result of that project, he noted, was the establishment,on experimental basis,of the Fast Track High Court in 2000.He said the reform and modernisation of the Judicial Service had since then become a major priority,leading to the creation of the Reform and Project Management and Implementation Division in the administrative set up of the Judicial Service. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr J. Ayikoi Otoo,gave the participants some food for thought and asked them to be interested in judicial reforms in such areas as technology and automation of the courts to minimise the long delays associated with the judges taking notes by hand and the training of people to augment the work of police prosecutors.He said they should also be interested in the course contents of the law schools and inadequate funding to facilitate judicial independence,since the lack of resources affected the judiciary’s independence.The President of the CMJA, the Rt Hon Lord David Hope of Craighead,Scotland,spoke on three things, namely,the Commonwealth, the association and what the conference was about.He said the ties that bound the differenr groups of people in the Commonwealth together were its respect for the rule of law and independence of the judiciary,among others, which needed to be understood and practised.Rt Hon Lord Hope said the judiciary was responsible for ensuring that the principles of separation of powers and the rule of law did not become a lip service but were practised to the letter.He commended the Chief Justice for the various reforms in the judiciary and the planning committee of AMJG for hosting the conference in Ghana.Earlier in his welcoming address, Mr Justice Yaw Appau, the President of the AMJG, briefed the participants about Ghana,its terrain,people and climate and said although the participants were in Ghana specifically for the conference,they should take time off to visit places of historical importance and also savour the Ghanaian hospitality.
Story by Stephen Sah
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