Legal Education must build Competence in Customary Law - Justice Ackaah-Boafo
For years, the debate over legal education in Ghana has been framed as a battle of "Access versus Standards". Justice Ackaah-Boafo argued that this is a false dichotomy. Instead, he asserted that both access and standards are twin duties owed to the same public specifically the vulnerable citizens who entrust their lives, liberty, and livelihoods to the legal profession.
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CAPE COAST – In a powerful address at the 13th Jurists’ Confab at the University of Cape Coast, Supreme Court Justice Kweku T. Ackaah-Boafo challenged the legal community to look beyond admission quotas and exam results to the very heart of Ghanaian life: customary law.
While acknowledging the landmark Legal Education Act of 2026, which has decentralised professional legal training, Justice Ackaah-Boafo warned that these reforms risk failing the public if they do not produce lawyers capable of navigating the laws that govern the majority of the population.
For years, the debate over legal education in Ghana has been framed as a battle of "Access versus Standards". Justice Ackaah-Boafo argued that this is a false dichotomy. Instead, he asserted that both access and standards are twin duties owed to the same public specifically the vulnerable citizens who entrust their lives, liberty, and livelihoods to the legal profession.
"A profession that grows in number but cannot competently serve the law under which the majority of Ghanaians actually live has widened access to a profession without widening access to justice," the Justice stated.
He reminded the audience that for most Ghanaians, "legal lives" are governed by customary law, which dictates matters of land, family, inheritance, and dispute resolution.
A central theme of the Justice’s remarks was the necessity of viewing customary law as a "living system" rather than merely a "chapter in a textbook". He pointed out a significant oversight in the new legislative framework: the Legal Education Act of 2026 remains largely silent on how to build genuine professional competence in this area.
Justice Ackaah-Boafo identified the integration of customary law as one of the four essential conditions for the success of these reforms. He argued that if the new system does not deliberately address the "place of customary law in a lawyer’s competence," it will fail to provide the service the public truly requires.
As the Council for Legal Education begins its work, the Justice urged academia and the Bar to fill the silence left by the statute. He cautioned that a "half-made" lawyer one who may pass a bar exam but lacks the depth to handle a customary land dispute or a widow’s inheritance is a failure of the system.
