<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In Ghana, Article 289 provides that the Constitution can be amended only by a Parliamentary initiative.<\/p>\n
In Kenya, Articles 256 and 257 respectively provide that their Constitution can be amended only by a Parliamentary initiative or by a Popular Petition of 1 million citizens.<\/p>\n
In Ghana, the President, through a CRC, not only initiated an amendment but did a comprehensive review of the Constitution using a framework set up by the CRC. Asare sued, alleging that the President cannot initiate a constitutional amendment, let alone a review, under the Constitution. He claimed that the President\u2019s role is limited to the backend assenting function, where he performs a ministerial role.<\/p>\n
In Kenya, the President and his main rival through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) procured 5.2 million signatures within a week to amend parts of the Constitution through a referendum. Ndii & others sued, alleging that the President cannot initiate a constitutional amendment under the Constitution. They argued that his role is limited to the backend assenting function, where he performs a ministerial role.<\/p>\n
The Ghana Court held that the President is not prohibited by the Constitution and he can set up a Commission to review the Constitution and a CRIC to propose amendments bills for a referendum.<\/p>\n
The Kenyan courts held that the President does not have authority under the Constitution to initiate changes to the Constitution and that a constitutional amendment can only be initiated by Parliament through a Parliamentary initiative under Article 256 or through a popular initiative under Article 257 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
This is an interesting difference in the way the Courts, in the two countries, understand the structure of the Constitution, the doctrines underlying the constitution amendment, and the limits of presidential power.<\/p>\n
The Kenya Courts say the Constitution must be amended by only its terms. Strict compliance is needed to alter the Supreme law. The Ghanafuo Court says the President can use his commissioning power to get to the amendment dance! A purposive compliance can be tolerated to amend the Supreme law.<\/p>\n
I agree with the Kenyafuo courts and strongly disagree with the Ghanafuo Court.<\/p>\n
As LLB graduates take their exams for a ticket to study professional law at the Government School, I wish them the best of luck.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, I\u2019d be remiss if I failed to repeat my call to do away with this moribund thinking that professional law, whatever it is, can only be studied at a government-run school, which has not shown any evidence that it deserves the monopoly.<\/p>\n
I also strongly disagree with the Ghanafuo Court that it lacks the jurisdiction to determine whether this government monopoly is constitutional.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: MyNewsGh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has chided Ghana\u2019s Supreme Court for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":82817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1-300x190.jpg",300,190,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"large":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"chromenews-featured":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"chromenews-large":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",640,405,false],"chromenews-medium":["https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CJ-1-1.jpg",590,373,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/author\/"},"category_info":"General<\/a>","tag_info":"General","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82818,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82816\/revisions\/82818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extranewsgh.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}