Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah has observed that Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) plays a significant role in Ghana’s justice delivery system due to the inherent challenges associated with litigation in the country.
He said the promotion of ADR had become more pronounced because of the challenges litigants are confronted with in the resolution of disputes.
According to the Chief Justice, the legal community is increasingly becoming more aware of the need for ADR to be mainstreamed into judicial processes for the advancement of law and order in an expeditious manner.
Justice Anin-Yeboah, who was speaking during the launch of a book, titled ‘The Law and Practice of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Ghana’, said even though litigation has its own advantages, there is an urgent need to decongest the courts, while enhancing justice for the citizenry.
The book, co-authored by Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, a retired Supreme Court Judge, and his son, Victor Brobbey, a law lecturer, provides guidance to the lay arbitrator to resolve disputes with potentially clear legal implications, among others.
It provides guidance on the enforcement of ADR disputes necessary to ensure that the winner of an ADR award is not frustrated by delays in the execution of the award.
The comprehensive book, which covers all aspects of ADR and discusses ADR theory and practice, seeks to contribute to the justice delivery landscape in Ghana.
Dispute resolution
The Chief Justice further indicated that although the judiciary has the arduous task of resolving disputes and providing justice for the citizenry despite the increasing Ghanaian population, there are approximately only 438 judges and magistrates nationwide to perform the tasks.
He said it is unreasonable for only such a few judges and magistrates to administer justice to all the population of the country in an efficient and expeditious manner as there were bound to be delays.
According to him, the courts continue to face significant deficits in infrastructure as they continue to be busy and inundated with cases, citing the recently inaugurated High Court at Amasaman, Ga West Municipal in early September 2020, which already has 545 active cases pending before it.
“A similar inundation can be found at the recently opened courts in Adenta. The High Court, opened in September 2019, commenced sitting on March 13, 2020, and currently has 937 cases,” he added.
Judiciary call
Government, Justice Anin-Yeboah said, had listened to the Judiciary’s call of making justice delivery physically accessible by reducing the travel time for litigants with the provision of additional court infrastructure across the country.
The Judiciary, he noted, had traditionally been at the forefront of meeting demand by the citizenry, albeit other avenues for dispute resolutions must be encouraged by law.
The Chief Justice said the current system of administrative tribunals in Ghana is virtually nonexistent, adding “neither did it appear to inspire high levels of public confidence and it was unsurprising that the first instinct of a yearning litigator was to run to the courts”.
He explained that “the common law system in Ghana inherited in 1957 or before, had delays built in its DNA,” and that such delays had been taken to absurd levels in Ghana in recent times as there were still protracted litigations in the courts as far back as the 1950s”.
He said the judiciary had taken a number of steps to address such delays to ensure that precision is not affected by the increase in speed, adding that the E-Justice system is one such initiatives.
Credit: GNA