Judicial service partners Duke University

The Judicial Training Institute (JTI) of the Judicial Service  in collaboration with the Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, USA has begun a Distant Learning Programme for Superior Court Judges. 

The programme which is an initiative of the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood, is being piloted with two batches of twenty Superior Court Justices in a 60-minutes lecture via Video Conferencing. 

A statement signed by the Director of Communications at the Judicial Secretary Mrs. Grace Tagoe and copied to the Ghana broadcasting Corporation, GBC, says the programme is aimed at building the capacity of the Justices in furtherance of the Chief Justice commitment to continuing Judicial Education.

The statement noted that the pilot programme which is being conducted by a prominent Duke Law Scholar Prof Neil Seigel, will introduce the Justices to the American Constitution and U.S. Constitutional Law. 

The statement further said among the topics to be covered during the programme are the nature and purposes of the Constitution, the authority for judicial review, the constitutional structure and constitutional rights, American constitutional interpretation – the different standard approaches to Interpreting the Constitution, the contemporary debate originalism and living constitutionalism, and the relationship between the Constitution inside and outside the courts. 

Other topics to be covered will include American statutory interpretation – which will focus on the debate between purposivism and textualism with illuminating examples from past and present US codes. 

According to the statement, before each day’s 60-minute lecture, Prof. Siegel will devote the first 30-minute session to answer questions about the previous day’s lecture. According to the statement the successful of the pilot programme will make for further expansion to include more professors and more lecture times. 

The statement said Dean of the Duke Law School, Prof. David Levi, in his brief remarks before the start of the first video conference session, expressed his delight and satisfaction that the Duke University is partnering the Ghanaian Judiciary in this initiative and hoped that it would mark the beginning of long lasting ties between the two institutions. 

The Board Chairman of the JTI, Justice Jones V.M. Dotse who is also a Justice of the Supreme Court, thanked Duke University for the unique opportunity and added that the Distant Learning Programme will further boost  the commitment of the JTI to provide continuing education for Judges and enhance their professional development through capacity building.

GBC