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A Legal Milestone, Justice Torkornoo, AI, Publishing Battles and other Legal Highlights

Published June 30, 2025

At long last, the maiden edition of the Greater Accra Bar Law Week is upon us. In what organisers hope will become a fixture on the legal calendar, the event is expected to evolve into a pre-eminent forum for dialogue, reflection, and professional development within the legal community.

Under the theme “The Future-Fit Lawyer”, keynote speaker Mr Kofi Dadzie will tackle the pressing issue of how legal practice is being reshaped by technology and artificial intelligence. The programme will also feature a panel of distinguished legal experts who will explore emerging trends in legal practice, procedure, and related fields.

With over 600 lawyers from the Greater Accra Bar already confirmed to attend, expectations are high that the event will live up to its promise.

Now to the news

Justice Torkornoo decries proceedings at committee of inquiry.

On 25th June 2025, the Suspended Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Justice Torkorno held a press conference to address happenings before the  commitees of enquiry investigating her for alleged misconduct.

In her remarks, Justice Torkornoo raised  concerns about happenings  at the committee’s proceedings. Among others the susupended Chief Justice stated that the proceedings at the committee of enquiry is cloaked in opacity and described it as  a far cry from any legal proceedings properly so-called.

She also expressed discomfort with venue of the commitees work, alleging it invokes troubling memories of a bygone era.

Notably,  Justice Torkornoo rejected calls for her to  resign, stating that stepping down would validate an unjust process.

Yet while the inner workings of the committee are being held in camera, it would be important and even imperative for all actors participating in the process to respect same. 

True, the suspended Chief Justice has “voiced” her  disagreement regarding the weight or substance of the petitions grounding for her removal, however we note that, prima facie there is nothing procedurally wrong with the processes for her impeachment so far, a view vindicated in multiple decisions from the Supreme Court.

In that regard,  we would respectfully  implore her ladyship to engage fully with the constitutionaly dictated process, choose the path of laying her defence before the committee or bringing actions in the appropriate courts, instead of engaging in a press conference.

US Supreme Court Upholds Texas Law Limiting Access to Pornography

The US Supreme Court  rejected a Texas law that seeks to limit minors’ access to pornography on the internet, ruling that it does not violate the First Amendment to require people to verify their age through measures like the submission of government-issued IDs.

The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.

A trade group representing companies that produce sexual materials, along with an adult performer, challenged the Texas law, saying that it violated the First Amendment right of adults

The Texas law applies to any commercial website “more than one-third of which is sexual material harmful to minors.” It requires such sites to use one of several methods to verify that users are 18 or older. It does not allow companies to retain the information their users submit. But the challengers said adults would be wary of supplying personal information for fear of identity theft, tracking and extortion-The New York Times.

Judge backs AI firm over use of copyrighted books

A US judge has ruled that using books to train artificial intelligence (AI) software is not a violation of US copyright law.

The decision came out of a lawsuit  instituted  against AI firm Anthropic by three authors.

The palintiffs included  best-selling mystery thriller writer Andrea Bartz, who accused the AI firm  of stealing her work to train its AI model and build a multi-billion dollar business. 

In the courts  ruling, Judge William Alsup said Anthropic’s use of the authors’ books was “exceedingly transformative” and therefore allowed under US law. The court howver  rejected Anthropic’s request to dismiss the case, ruling the firm would have to stand trial over its use of pirated copies to build its library of material-BBC

By Legal Desk

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