Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers Authority, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, has criticised the practice of shutting down large parts of Ghana’s justice system during legal vacations, describing it as an unproductive colonial legacy that must be reconsidered.
According to Prof. Gyampo, Ghana cannot claim to be modernizing its public service while allowing an entire arm of government to significantly slow down because judges and lawyers are on vacation.
He argues that the judiciary can adopt a roster system similar to what operates across the public service, allowing some judges to take leave while others remain at post to keep the courts functioning.
“We cannot continue to allow an arm of government to grind to a halt because we are going on vacation.”
Prof. Gyampo says the practice of planned leave is already common in Ghana’s public service, where workers take turns to ensure that institutions remain operational throughout the year.
He believes the same approach can be applied to the judiciary, with judges taking their vacations at different times rather than having the system broadly shut down.
“Why can’t we extend this practice to the judiciary?” he asked on the KeyPoints on August 15.
Prof. Gyampo says the judiciary, like other public institutions, should be structured in a way that protects the right of workers to take leave without compromising access to justice.
“Why can’t we extend this same practice in the public service tradition?”
He says a system of rotating leave would allow some judges to go on vacation while others continue hearing cases, after which those who remained at post can take their leave when their colleagues return.
According to him, such an arrangement would ensure that the rights of judges and lawyers to rest are respected while also protecting citizens’ right to access justice.
Prof. Gyampo describes the practice of broadly suspending court activities during legal vacation as a colonial-era arrangement that no longer fits Ghana’s modern democratic system.
“This is an unproductive colonial legacy that, in my view, must be dispensed with in modern-day democratic practice.”
He says Ghana must be willing to interrogate long-standing institutional practices instead of maintaining them simply because they have existed for years.
Prof. Gyampo also questioned some of the traditional expectations surrounding courtroom attire, arguing that the clothing worn by lawyers should not be confused with their professional competence or the quality of their legal arguments.
Recalling an experience in court, he said he once saw a lawyer reprimanded by a judge over the lawyer’s choice of attire.
That experience, he says, made him question why clothing should become such an important consideration in determining how a lawyer is perceived.
“What has the dress one wears got to do with the wisdom the person is going to spill at the court?”
He argues that institutional reforms should focus more on efficiency and competence than on traditions that have little bearing on the administration of justice.
Prof. Gyampo also criticised what he described as attempts by Ghana’s political elite to present the current debate over court vacation as though the practice of hearing certain cases during vacation were unprecedented.
He says cases have been heard during court vacations before and that the current situation is therefore not a new development.
“This is not the first time it has happened. It happened yesterday. It is happening today.”
He believes political leaders should be more consistent in their positions and should not criticise a practice during one administration after accepting or supporting similar arrangements under another.
Prof. Gyampo says there must instead be a broader consensus on how the judiciary should operate during vacation periods.
“If we don’t want it to happen, then there should be a certain elite consensus about it.”
He insists that Ghanaians deserve clear and consistent explanations from political leaders, rather than what he considers attempts to take advantage of public ignorance.
“It is an unnecessary insult to the intelligence of the good people of Ghana.”
Prof. Gyampo is therefore calling for a rethink of the legal vacation system as part of broader efforts to modernise Ghana’s public institutions and ensure that access to justice is not unnecessarily interrupted.
By Christabel Success Treve
