Link Law to Technology for Economic development-Prof. Kufuor
“There is a close link that tends to be ignored. A link with the law on the one hand, and technology on the other hand. It is so separate that most people who are good at law, are very bad at technology and people who are good at technology do not like lawyers because they think they know everything.”
Co-General editor of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law, Prof. Kofi Oteng Kufuor has tasked decision-makers, legal practitioners, academia, and students in developing countries to always link law to technology for economic development.
He indicated that almost all technological changes being witnessed in recent times were informed by law thus the need to marry law with technology.
However, Prof. Kufuor bemoaned the fact that most people in the legal fraternity either do not see or disregard this close link.
“There is a close link that tends to be ignored. A link with the law on the one hand, and technology on the other hand. It is so separate that most people who are good at law, are very bad at technology and people who are good at technology do not like lawyers because they think they know everything.”
“I have always argued that the two live together but sometimes we do not see.”
Speaking at the KNUST 1st Eminent Legal Scholars Public Lecture series on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, Prof Kufuor also noted that the outstanding developments witnessed the world over from the 16th Century, wouldn’t have been possible without good laws.
Recounting the origin of sovereignty, he noted that the European Monarchs in the 1500s acquired immense power as a result of the technology at the time that allowed the law to change through the development and acquisition of cannons which made the Monarchs to overcome their adversaries.
The lecture was on the topic; “A very convenient Marriage: Law and Technology in the quest for Economic Transformation.”
Present at the lecture were the Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, Prof.(Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson who was the chairperson, Dean of the KNUST Faculty of Law, Dr Ernest Owusu Dapaa and a host of lecturers and legal practitioners.
Additionally, the Speaker recounted the radical rise of technology in the United Kingdom in the mid- 1700s and during the industrial revolutionary era which saw the emergence of property rights due to the huge technological investments at the time.
Moreover, Prof Kufuor mentioned the changes in the Patent laws in the United Kingdom as result of the new and emerging technological advancement.
“There were other changes; Patent law in the United Kingdom had to be redesigned and gradually and moved from being rigid, clumsy, expensive to file a patent, the difficulties in resolving disputes and more. All that was rationalized and made much easier for would-be investors to use. Would-be investors could now rely more on patent laws to protect their intellectual property,” he said.
Prof Kofi Oteng Kufuor studied at KNUST, the London School of Economics, and the University of Warwick.
He is the author of 4 books with a fifth forthcoming on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement(AFCFTA).
Prof. Kufuor has been a professor of Law in the University of East London since 2006 and has held visiting positions at LECIAD in the University of Ghana, The GIMPA Law school, The Institute of Advanced legal studies in the University of London, and the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University.
