Politics and the Administration of Justice in Newly Independent Countries

Abstract

THERE has recently been much disquietude in Ghana and elsewhere over the dismissal of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice was dismissed because the Special Court over which he presided to determine allegations of treason against five persons, three of whom were party officials of the ruling Convention People's Party, found these three persons not guilty and acquitted them. The official reason given for terminating his services was that, in a matter involving the safety of the state, he should have consulted the President of the Republic before handing down the Court's decision. The Attorney-General of Ghana (a political appointee) criticized the decision and accused the Court of discrimination. Upon release of the news of the Chief Justice's removal from office, the President of the International Commission of Jurists cabled an appeal to President Nkrumah to revoke his action. The Secretary-General of the Commission, after likewise personally pleading with Dr. Nkrumah to review his decision, issued a statement in which he said that: is hard to conceive of a more grievous blow to the administration of justice in any jurisdiction.' The purpose of this paper is to consider the recent changes in the system of appointing and removing judges and other senior legal personnel in some Commonwealth countries which have recently become independent or are about to do so. The general tendency to give ministers a say in legal and judicial appointments will be examined, as also the apprehension of inhabitants in some territories. Although all the countries derive their institutions from Britain and are endeavouring in this particular manner to copy the English legal institutions, the paper will attempt to show that local circumstances dictate that hardly an two territories follow the same pattern in the appointment and dismissal of senior judicial and legal staff. One of the proud boasts of persons trained in the western legal tradition has been that our judges are independent of, and immune from, political interference. In England, and in all Commonwealth countries, a judge's salary is charged on the Consolidated Fund and cannot be reduced while he remains in office. A judge in England can only be dismissed if each House of Parliament passes an address petitioning for his dismissal; and, although this provision has been on the statute books for over two hundred years, it has never been invoked. It is also of interest to note that in England most judges are appointed