Atta Akyea shakes UCC

Published January 17, 2024

JURIST CONFAB  an engaging  intellectual  forum – organized by and under the auspices of the University of Cape Coast Faculty of Law – it serves as the perfect platform and forum for astute and accomplished legal minds to dilate on pertinent legal themes. 

Our Event Desk recaps  THE 2023 EDITION  here: 

Jurist Confab, a forum for intellectual discourse on the law is hosted by the University of Cape Coast. By its design, participating speakers take turns to speak on various subjects touching on and concerning the law. 

Speakers, discuss their deep knowledge of the law on specific areas, garnished with lessons and perspectives gained from their many years of practicing and teaching of the law. 

As its core, it serves the purpose of clarifying and demystifying the study and practice of the law, and not insignificantly, the confab is fast  becoming the hub for law students, teachers of the law, legal practitioners and judges alike to fraternize and cross fertilize ideas.

It is instructive to mention that the Guest Speaker for the 2023 Jurist Confab Samuel Atta Akyea – a preeminent Ghanaian lawyer – spoke on the topic ‘the making of a legal luminary”.

The eminent legal practitioner minced no words in stating and sharing with the gathering/confab, what he considered to be key values and attitudes which have accounted for and define the successes  of eminent legal practitioners; which include but not limited to long hours of study, diligent legal research, robust advocacy, courage and guts: admonishing practitioners to wear these traits as a daily badges as they navigate the world of legal practice.

In his concluding remarks at the confab, Lawyer Atta Akyea humbly submitted that the Judiciary in Ghana would be served better if some members of the bench would move from their high horses and be ready/eager to “learn” from and be “improved” by the bar.  For a bench that is receptive to new learning and is committed to a thorough and faithful application of the rules of court and settled Supreme Court precedents would better serve the interest of all and ensure a judiciary that is trusted by the citizens. 

Next to be heard was Dr. Maame Mensah-Bonsu. She dealt with the topic “ the academic legal luminary: who is she/he? what do they do? 

Dr. Maame Bonsu, an academic, in her delivery, addressed on what she believed to be a seeming lack of interest of the Ghanaian legal teacher in the affairs of the bench. In her estimation, this  has led to what she termed as the “free rein” of the bench, for its deliverables are hardly reviewed and commented on. 

It was her contention that the judiciary/bench practically has a “field day” when its pronouncements and judgements avoid and escape the lens of the legal academician.  While she commends the interest of Ghana legal academician to publish in international journals, Maame contends that as charity begins at home, legal academicians should be focused on publishing locally with a special interest in the decisions emanating from our superior courts.

On his part, Justice Owusu Dapaah, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, explored the contrast and peculiarities associated with the work of a legal practitioner, a legal academician and a judge. 

Drawing upon his personal sojourns and works in these intertwined and interrelated aspects of the legal profession, the learned justice doubtlessly lived up to the occasion, taking the audience through his rich experiences in the law as a legal practitioner, law lecturer and judge over the years. 

On the whole,  an exhilarating and cerebral legal event, which should be encouraged and replicated in most  law schools as it serves as a very good forum to discuss and brainstorm on current matters that affect the study and practice of the law. Suffice it to say that if JURIST CONFAB 2023 is anything to go by, then the stage is set for what should be a much more exciting and intellectually stimulating 2024 jurist confab, it’s 11^th edition.