Dr Dominic Ayine says Minority MPs will oppose the new Legal Profession Bill
The bill seeks to amend exiting legislation on educating legal professionals
The bill is yet to be laid before Parliament
Dr. Dominic Ayine, has disclosed that the Minority MPs will oppose the Attorney General’s new Legal Profession Bill, 2021 which is yet to be laid before the House.
According to him, the proposals contained in the Attorney General’s bill are not something they can support.
Dr. Dominic Ayine, who himself, with two other MPs have tabled a private members bill on the legal education reforms argued on Joy News that:
“The bifurcated approach that is being adopted by the Attorney General’s bill is not something we want to support and we will be galvanizing support in parliament to go against that.
“I don’t think we should combine the regulation of professional legal education with the legal profession as a whole.
“In England, they have done the separation. And because of the growing demand on Legal Education, I think we need a special body.”
About the new Legal Profession Bill
The Attorney General is seeking to introduce a Legal Profession Bill to consolidate and amend the existing legislation regulating the profession.
Clause 30(2) of the bill indicates that the General Legal Council may allocate quotas to universities that the Council has approved to run the Bachelor of Laws program. This has been criticized as further closing the door to legal education in the country.
The already discarded interview process as part of the admission into the Ghana Law School will be reintroduced in this bill.
Under the new bill, the Independent Exams Committee will now become a creation of Law and to appeal decisions of the General Legal Council’s Disciplinary Committee, affected persons can no longer go to the High Court but the Supreme Court.
