Teach inter-disciplinary perspectives of Law for Social change-Prof Kufuor to Law Faculties
According to him, most developing countries will attain Development and solve pressing issues when they begin to see Law as a fulcrum that reaches out to other academic areas.
Co-General Editor of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law, Prof. Kofi Oteng Kufuor has admonished Law Faculties in Developing Countries to desist from basing legal training solely on the Black Letter courses.
According to him, most developing countries will attain Development and solve pressing issues when they begin to see Law as a fulcrum that reaches out to other academic areas.
“My first experience with inter-disciplinary approach was when I left here with a first degree in Law and History and I went to the United Kingdom and applied to study at the London School of Economics. I wanted to become a Company Lawyer because I really liked company Law.
“When I went to the LSE, I met my Academic guidance tutor who directed me to a class on Law and Urbanization. He told me to go and sit in that class and see if I will like it. And I was moved after I finished the first lecture and I never looked back.”
Speaking at the KNUST 1st Eminent Legal Scholars Public Lecture series on Tuesday, January 25, 2022, Prof Kufuor re-echoed the fact that Developing countries like Ghana have enough lawyers who can secure bail for miscreants, fight endless land law cases, sit on the Bench and deliver the best judgments etc. however what they lack are lawyers who see Law as a tool for social change,” he noted.
He thus bemoaned the fact that these perspectives are not taught in the Universities.
The 1st Eminent Legal Scholars 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.
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.
