The Africa Committee of the American Bar Association, Thomson Reuters and Books For Africa contribute books to the Ghana School of Law

Yvonne Fiadjoe, a graduate of the Ghana School of Law (GSL) and member of the Africa Committee of the American Bar Association, helped bring a West Core Law Library to the GSL in 2012 with the Africa Committee of the American Bar Association, Thomson Reuters, and Books For Africa. Here she describes receiving the books and how they will impact legal education in Ghana.

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be a student at this noble and distinguished institution, the Ghana School of Law (GSL).   At that time, I recall several lecturers giving assignments which involved detailed research.  I dreaded the experience since there were often two main challenges, either the books were too old to be used or in some subject areas, there were no text books at all. This is the stark reality of many law students in Africa. 

In order to address these challenges, the Africa Committee of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of International Law, in conjunction with Books For Africa and Thomson Reuters recently donated approximately 400 new legal text books to the GSL. Under the guidance and direction of Mr. George Sarpong, the Director of the GSL, the Africa Committee coordinated the shipment of the books to Accra. Mr. Nene Amegatcher, provided the funds for the shipment of the books. The books which arrived in Accra a few weeks ago, cover a myriad of subjects including a resource module which focuses on 3 areas:  (i) common law texts such as contracts, torts, criminal law, property, constitutional law, and civil procedure; (ii) business law books including books on patents and intellectual property law, and (iii) legal practice books covering negotiations, trial skills, legal ethics, legal and legislative drafting, citation use, and legal advocacy.

Established in 1958, by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, the school had the ambitious task of training lawyers of the newly independent Ghana. It was the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa and to date continues to produce some of the best legal minds on the continent including the current President of the Republic of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills and Her Ladyship Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood. The GSL is the sole competent institution for professional legal training in Ghana.

On January 6th, 2012, the books were presented at a short ceremony in which members of the judiciary, and several distinguished guests were present. Expressing her heartfelt thanks on behalf of the Ghana School of Law, Her Ladyship Chief Justice Georgina Wood received the books.