Publication: Ghana - Establishment of the Commercial Court
Date
2007-12
ISSN
Published
2007-12
Author(s)
Cofie, Sandra
Abstract
An often-repeated remark about George
Kingsley Acquah, Ghana's chief justice from 2003 until
2007 and driver of his country's major judicial reforms
was that "it took a man like him for this to
happen". The author certainly subscribe to this view,
having observed his impact from position as director of the
judicial reform, project development and implementation unit
at the judicial service of Ghana. Doubtless, most prominent
reform is the establishment of the commercial division at
the High Court in Accra, the first commercial court in
Ghana, and possibly the most significant addition to the
judicial service since independence. After decades of
political turmoil that had left behind a disrupted court
system, the reform not only brought about shorter delays to
commercial dispute resolution. It also instilled new spirit
in Ghana's justice sector. In light of Ghana's
policy objective of becoming a middle income country by
2020, the state of legal affairs looked dire a mere 10 years
ago. Military rule had given way to an emerging democracy
only in the 1990s. In 1982, three judges had been murdered,
and the following years witnessed a severe lack of judicial
personnel and resources. More than half of posts in district
courts were vacant, backlog and delays in adjudication
persistent. The legal system was a slow, erratic,
inconsistent and costly environment, hostile to the
effective performance of the judicial function. Ghanaian
businesses suffered: diagnosis of the commonwealth
secretariat and the World Bank described contract
enforcement as generally inadequate. Long delays and
corruption made uncertainty in contract enforcement
pervasive and posed a major obstacle to doing business in Ghana.
Citation
“Cofie, Sandra. 2007. Ghana - Establishment of the Commercial Court. IFC Smart Lessons Brief. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/a6a67af7-d47e-5dd2-9cf2-3d903918cb83 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.”
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