The School of Law runs six programmes. These are:
- LL.B
- Post-First Degree LL.B
- MA – Human Rights and Administration
- LL.M – Alternative Dispute Resolution
- M.A – Alternative Dispute Resolution
- LL.M – Oil and Gas
BACKGROUND OF EACH PROGRAMME OF STUDY.
Post-First Degree Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
The proposal for the conversion was first put forward and discussed several years ago. The suggestion was again made by the Academic Board in 1992 when it considered the Inter-Faculty Committee Report to Advise on Plans for the Development of the University and the 4-year degree Curriculum (The Acheampong Report).
The new programme was to be of 2-year duration and was to allow students to have depth and range in their first degrees and free them to concentrate on Law subjects during the post-first degree programme.
The School submitted to the Academic Board, a proposal to convert the the existing LLB programme at the time, the 4-year first degree to a Post-First Degree Bachelor of Laws with effect from the 2000-2001 academic year.
MA – Human Rights and Administration
The programme will benefit personnel of the civil service, security services, the teaching service, professional administrators (e.g. University Administrators, Heads of Polytechnics, and Heads of Teacher Training Institutions etc.), NGO executives, and even ordinary private individuals. The programme is designed to meet the need for legal knowledge of non-lawyers, particularly those with human rights and administration related legal risks and responsibilities in their jobs. The programme will provide them with the legal knowledge that they would require for a more responsible functioning in their position and to also qualify them for consideration for elevation into higher positions of responsibility.
LL.M / M.A – Alternative Dispute Resolution
The course will satisfy the needs of lawyers and non-lawyers in negotiations, mediations and arbitrations. Non-lawyers in Management, Human Resource Managers, the mining sector NGOs and others will develop advanced skills that will improve their efficiency on the job.
LL.M – Oil and Gas
The programme will be suitable for legal professionals seeking to upgrade their skills while at the same time gaining formal academic recognition for such upgrading. In this vein, the programme will establish and maintain strong linkages with not only the oil and gas industry but also with the non-oil private and public sectors of the economy which require professional legal skills to engage effectively with the industry.
RATIONALE, GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMMES OF STUDY:
Rationale
The post-first degree programmes focus on developing talented individuals with fully developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the law as well as excellent leadership capabilities. Students are required to take courses in legal systems and methods, law of contract, constitutional law, law of torts etc.
The graduate programmes focus on community interactive teaching, learning and research. Students are required to take courses in research methodologies in relation to human rights etc, which will be tested in field work. This method will lead to the production of a new breed of human rights experts who will not limit their scope only to court room work but also to practical community work. The LLM Programme is designed to satisfy the needs of those not interested in pursuing academic or research professions.
Goals
At heart of the strategic statement of the School is the achievement of certain core goals, critical of the aspirations of the School:
• The introduction of courses designed to attract individuals, both School and students, with the intellectual attributes required to assume leadership in their chosen spheres of endeavour.
• The production of top quality students whose impact and contribution will be felt worldwide.
• Position to continuously provide legal and other professionals with the opportunity to update their skills.
• Encourage cutting edge research into the Law as exemplified by international best practice and with a particular reference to its practice as it applies to Ghana and Africa.
• Taking academic excellence and translating it into practical application to real and relevant problems in society, business, government and all aspects of societal life.
Objectives
LLB Programme:
• To provide the best education, training and knowledge resources for the preparation of the legal minds and professionals of tomorrow.
• To develop talented individuals with fully developed theoretical and practical knowledge of the law as well as excellent leadership capabilities to provide quality service to all, in all spheres of endeavour and in all circumstances.
• To contribute to the realization of the University’s mission by creating a congenial environment in which scholarship, innovation, intellectual excellence and world class legal minds are developed to meet national and global challenges.
LLM/MA Programme:
• The primary objective of the programme is to develop and train a critical mass of well-equipped legal professionals able to tackle or deal with the key legal and regulatory issues in the emerging oil and gas industry in Ghana and elsewhere.
• This programme is structured such that students enrolled in the programme should be in the position to privately take and pass the examinations of the Chattered Institute of Arbitrators.
• To provide students taking it with knowledge in human rights and legal principles relating to administration
• Students will be well groomed to be ready to continue from the LL.M onto the Ph.D. programme and eventually take up teaching in the Law Faculties.