Ho, May 3, GNA - Justice Sule Gbadegbe, Supreme Court Judge, on Friday said harmonization is not the prime purpose of the current process of ascertaining and codifying customary laws in Ghana. He said the job now is to see what was operating on the ground, observing that "communal and geographical variations made customary law what it is".

Justice Gbadegbe was reacting to concerns raised about the differences in the list of items needed for customary marriages within the Asogli Traditional Area, at a validation meeting, attended by chiefs, queens and elders of chieftains in the area, held at Ho. It was under auspices of the Ascertainment and Codification of Customary Law Project (ACLP) of the National House of Chiefs and the Law Reform Commission, with support from the German Development Agency (GTZ).

Justice Gbadegbe, member of the Law Reform Commission on the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) of the Project stressed that the time for harmonization had not come yet.

Togbe Kwaku Ayim IV, Paramount Chief of the Ziavi Traditional Area, who chaired the meeting, wanted some harmonization, based on contributions of participating chiefs during an open forum. The indication was that while the items had been doubled in some areas to reflect 'current economic circumstances,' other traditional leaders have had the items trimmed to encourage hordes of eligible bachelors to get formally married.

The project, tackling customary law on land and the family commenced in 2006. A background document made available to the media said the "project represents the very first initiative taken towards the fulfillment of the constitutional mandate given the National House of Chiefs, to undertake the progressive study, interpretation and codification of customary law with a view to evolving in appropriate cases, a unified system of rules of customary law in Article 272(b) of the 1992 constitution". A total of 20 traditional areas, two from each of the 10 regions of Ghana are participating in the current stage of the project. The workshop heard reports of research teams, which went round communities within the area, discussed it, made additions and subtractions, for further attention of experts on the project before codification.