public access to primary legalinformation in ghana
TRANSCRIPT
PUBLIC ACCESS TO PRIMARY LEGALINFORMATION IN GHANA
:OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Janet Odetsi Twum & Comfort Asare
GHANA
oIntroduction
oObjectives of the Study
oOverview of Ghana Legal System
oLegislations Supporting access to Information
oPlatforms for Legal Information Access
oOpportunities and Challenges
oConclusions
Outline
Political Map of Africa
Information has Social, Economic and Political Impact on the lives of people
Access to Information is a fundamental right
Citizens need to have information generated by Governments
Chapter 5 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution outlines the rights of information
Introduction
Objectives of study
OVERVIEW OF GHANA LEGAL SYSTEM
Ghana Legal System is based English on Common Law and operates on Adversarial court System
The Court Structure - Superior Courts and Lower Courts.
The Superior Courts - Supreme Court(Final Appellate body of the whole courts in Ghana), Court of Appeal and the High Court.
The Lower courts - Circuit Courts and the District Courts, Juvenile Courts
Front View of the Supreme Court
Law Courts Complex
Ghana’s 1992 Constitution : Provides for right of information and Academic Freedom
Right to Information Bill - Access to information held by Government
Data Protection Act, 843 2012 – regulates the transmission of personal data in the Country
LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION
Ghana Open Data Initiatives
Government through Collaboration with National Information
Technology Agency (NITA) – Develop an Open Data Community
E- Governance and Automated Courts – Enabled environment for access real time information
Most court processes are automated
Easy Access to Case Laws from the Courts
GATEWAYS TO PUBLIC LEGAL INFORMATION
Research4Life Partnership program through GOALI - A project
a public-private partnership of Various organisationspublishers.
Aim
To reduce the knowledge gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries by providing affordable access to scholarly, professional and research information.
CONTINUATION
Improved ICT Infrastructure – Increase use Digital technology and Mobile Technology (Mobile penetration in Ghana stands at 45%. (GSM, Assoc. 2017)
Websites for promoting Access to legal Information Judicial Service Website - https://www.judicial.gov.gh : The
website provides a stop shop for all information relating to the Judicial Service of Ghana, i.e. History, Schedule of Court Fees, Judicial News, Weekly Cause List, Complaints Unit, Judicial Reforms, Biodata of Supreme Court Judges, List of Appeal Court, High Court and Circuit Court Judges, and District Court Magistrates. It also has E-judgements
Judicial Training Institute – http://www.jtighana.org: Is a training Institute for training , Judiciary, Judicial “staff and other stakeholders to achieve a justice system that is credible, impartial, independent, user-friendly and accessible to all. They host wealth of Judgements of the Court.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO LEGAL INFORMATION
Ghana Legal Information Institute (GhaLii) - https://ghalii.org
online repository for public legal information
Initial Self funding
African Legal Information Institute support
Ghana Law Finder database.(Not web based) – Developed by an Individual
continuation
African Law Library (ALL) - www.africanlawlibrary.net : it is a project of African Innovation foundation, which seeks to solve the challenge of public access to legal information across Africa. It has quite wealth of legal information from some African Countries.
Open Source Software’s : The advent of open source software has made collecting , managing and Sharing Information much easier which has been the catalyst for initiatives by institutions to provide free aceess to public legal information.
CONTINUATION
Role of Law Libraries
Law Libraries plays significant role in providing public legal information .
Law Library is the heart of the Law School (Tice,2011).
Law Libraries equip users with the needed skills for
Accessing public legal information (Hackerson,2010)
CONTINUATION
1. Intellectual Property – Copyright issues involving 3
levels.
2. Lack of funding
3. Restrictive Ghanaian Laws
4. Inadequate Research Skills
CHALLENGES
• Intellectual property – synergy of all stakeholders
• Funding – Shared cost & resources amongst stakeholders
• Restrictive Ghanaian laws – Advocacy for amendments and repeals
Law libraries – Prepare students well on research skills & Law Schools should assign credit hours for research skills
RECOMMENDATIONS
Access to public primary legal information is a human right and needed to be promoted
Provided recommendation may remedy some of the challengens enumerated.
Conclusion
