A senior lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Ghana, Dr Raymond Atuguba, has stated that any attempt to abolish customary laws could pose a threat to justice delivery in the country.
He said large percentages of land and marriages were held in trust and conducted under the customary laws. “So we will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we ignore the law that people live with and which governs their lives at all times,” the lecturer indicated.
“If we should abrogate customary law today, it means over 75 per cent of marriages in Ghana would become invalid. Can you imagine that?” Dr Atuguba asked.
Customary law exists where a certain legal practice is observed and the relevant actors consider it to be law.
Dr Atuguba was speaking at a colloquium organised by Lancaster University, Ghana, on its premises in Accra.
The colloquium was meant to stimulate and sustain discourse within the legal system on pressing matters in Ghana and Africa.
He said some organisations were trying to denigrate the practice of customary law, classifying the law as “archaic, useless, barbaric and contrary to human rights”, a situation the law lecturer described as a big mistake.
Challenges
According to Dr Atuguba, every legal system has some challenges, “what we should be doing is fixing the problem in customary law and allowing it to blossom, rather than trying to abrogate it”.
He, therefore, cautioned the public to be wary of some human rights movements, feminists and development agencies in their quest to denigrate customary law.
“We still have racist laws”
“We have racist laws in several countries that have survived for centuries. We have not called on those countries to abolish those laws because there are problems with some aspects of their laws,” the lecturer stated.
Other speakers included a lecturer from the University of East London, Prof. Kofi Kufuor, who spoke on law and development.
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