Subtle moves underway to kill customary law - Lecturer

Dr Raymond Atuguba, a Senior Law Lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, has said there 'is a movement to kill Customary law' through globalisation, development, human rights and feminism.

According to him, there was a current neoliberal movement, a globalisation force using political, economic and social measures to erode all forms of laws in Africa.

Dr Atuguba was speaking at a two-day colloquium on Law and Development, organised by the Lancaster University, Ghana, in Accra.

Customary law is usually defined as a body of customs and traditions, which regulates various kinds of relationships between members in community.

The colloquium, the second edition, is an initiative to stimulate and sustain discourse within the academic legal community about pressing matters in Ghana and Africa.

Dr Atuguba, who delivered a paper on the Seven Phases in the Evolution of Customary Law in Africa: "Signposts from Ghana", said there was a big revivalism in Customary Law in many African countries.

He said Customary Law, however, could not be killed because most problems were resolved at the grassroots.

He said the signposts that had greatly influenced the lives of Africans and controlled a sizable chunk of their ordinary lives included Codifed, Statutory, Judicial and Pristine Customary Laws.

Mr Tuinese Edward Amuzu, a lecturer at the Lancaster University, said the attributes of the Common Law system created a structural deficiency in the country's legal system, particularly, in the adjudication of corruption prosecutions.

He said for effective justice delivery, there should be a re-orientation on the role of judges through the introduction of some attributes of the Civil Law into the legal system.

"The adversarial nature of the Common Law System comes with the tendencies of 'mistrust,'" he stated.

Dr Cynthia Firson, an Associate Professor, Lancaster University, Ghana, said the event was slowly gaining a reputation as a medium for legal academics to deliberate on issues of importance to Ghana, the West African sub-region and the African continent.

She expressed the hope that the success of the event would lead the way in creating an atmosphere that fostered research, development and sharing of useful knowledge.