Legal scholar and governance advocate Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has questioned why Ghana continues to observe the Legal Vacation tradition inherited from the colonial era, arguing that trial courts should remain operational throughout the year to reduce case backlogs and protect litigants’ rights.
Professor Azar, writing under the title “GBA VACATES CRIMINAL JUSTICE? GOGO DEMURS!”, referenced a December 1922 article in The Gold Coast Leader which criticised the Legal Vacation at the time, citing the “very congested state of legal business” and questioning whether judges shared the same urgency as litigants waiting for their cases to be determined. He said it was striking that the concerns raised by the newspaper more than a century ago remain relevant in Ghana today.
He argued that although judges are entitled to reasonable annual leave, this should not require the courts as institutions to shut down. According to him, judges and court staff can have their leave staggered and rotated while trial courts continue operating. He described trial courts as the “engine room of justice,” stressing that when they stop functioning, criminal cases are delayed, accused persons may remain on remand, victims continue to wait, and witnesses and families are left in uncertainty.
Professor Azar also questioned the position of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on the continuation of part-heard criminal trials during the Legal Vacation. He acknowledged that lawyers have legitimate concerns about vacations, travel and work-life balance, but argued that such personal arrangements should not automatically result in delays to clients’ cases, particularly where an accused person’s liberty is at stake.
He maintained that a lawyer’s vacation should not become a veto over a properly constituted court’s decision to hear a case. In his view, the Legal Vacation is a vacation of the courts and should not be interpreted as an automatic two-month leave entitlement for lawyers.
Professor Azar further argued that Ghana’s justice system must be organised around the needs of the people it serves rather than the convenience of those who administer it. He said the issue should not be viewed through partisan political lenses, insisting that the right to a speedy and fair trial applies equally to supporters of all political parties.
He therefore called for a rethink of the Legal Vacation system, particularly for trial courts, saying Ghana should move towards a system where individual judges, lawyers and court staff can take their annual leave without bringing the administration of justice to a halt.
“People may vacation. Justice must not,” Professor Azar concluded, arguing that the colonial-era Legal Vacation tradition should be reconsidered in the interest of Ghana’s justice system and litigants.
Story by Freedom Etsey Lavoe