Law school admission: Parliament’s directive to GLC has no grounds in law – Lawyer

A private legal practitioner has described Parliament’s directive for the General Legal Council (GCL) to admit some 499 law school applicants to the Ghana School of Law as “much I do about nothing.”

Some weeks ago, the National Association of Law Students (NALS) presented a petition to the legislature on the aggrieved 499 law students, who did not gain admission into the Ghana School of Law despite scoring more than the usual 50% pass-mark in the 2021 entrance exam.

Mr. Adjei Baffour Awuah reacting to the legislature’s directive said parliament has no standing in law to direct the General Legal Council (GLC) to admit the said students.

Speaking on Accra-based Asempa FM on Thursday, October 29, 2021, Mr. Awuah noted that the action of Parliament has no bearing on GLC and the law school.

He explained that GLC is a creation of statute and not under the Parliamentary resolution.

“There’s nowhere in the world where everybody who passes his or her LLB examination goes to the law school,” he argued.

According to him, in England and Wales, every university offers an LLB course but only eight universities run the Bar courses.

“This is best practice to training for the Bar, the standards ought to be high,” he posited.

He said despite the level of development in England and Wales only a little over 1000 barristers are called to the Bar.

“I admit there is a problem but we should thread cautiously with reforms at the law school,” he cautioned.