Early on this year (on 21st April 2021), the Supreme Court in Peter Adjei v Margaret Adjei[1] held that property acquired with a loan, which was still being paid, could not be classified as jointly acquired property. In this case, the Petitioner (husband) filed a petition for divorce against the Respondent (wife) and sought custody...
By: Claudia N.A. Coleman (Private Legal Practitioner) Physical spousal abuse became a regular theme in Media reports in the late 1990s, thus resulting in the establishment of the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) of the Ghana Police in 1998; a specialised unit that handled crimes against women and children. These actions resulted in the Government...
Introduction In 2014, Citifmonline.com[i] reported a news item in which a family lawyer and former lecturer of the Ghana Law School, Dr. Kofi Adinkrah who incidentally happened to be my Family Law lecturer[ii], in a post captioned ‘Prenups don’t generate controversy’, urged “Ghanaian couples to enter into prenuptial agreements to tackle unforeseen challenges associated with...
Introduction Jurisdiction in law is fundamental. It is the power or authority upon which a person or a body acts. Without the requisite jurisdiction, a person, whether natural or juristic, is not clothed with the power to act in a certain manner. It is trite learning that jurisdiction is so fundamental an issue in every...
Introduction Customary law has been defined under Article 11(3) of the Constitution 1992 as: “Rules of law which by custom are applicable to particular communities in Ghana.” These include the rules of customary law that have been determined by the Superior Courts of Judicature. Customary law therefore, is now part of the common law of...
Where the marriage is not registered within the prescribed one week period, or where the attendance of any of the persons whose signature is necessary to complete the registration process cannot be procured, the High Court may extend the time for registration, and/or dispense with the signature of any of the prescribed persons, upon an ex parte application made to that Court.
Discussions on the types of marriages celebrated in Ghana have in recent times given the impression that persons married under the ordinance have more advantages than their counterparts married under customary law. Although this assertion may be true in some very limited instances1, spousal rights under the 1992 Constitution2 and some enactments like the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1971 (Act 367), Wills Act, 1971 (Act 360)3, Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29)4 and the Intestate Succession Act, 1985 (PNDCL 111) do not discriminate against spouses under either type of marriage. It is my opinion that when it comes to the dissolution of marriages (divorce),...
The law sometimes works in mysterious ways. And its principles are sometimes clearly out of date and out of touch with current realities. One of such principles is the presumption of advancement. The presumption of advancement means that the law presumes that the transfer of property to a recipient or the purchase of property in...
Who gets what in divorce battles can be one of the most difficult decisions a judge will have to make. These proceedings tend to be acrimonious, as each spouse is bent on benefitting as much as possible from the property distribution to be made by the court. But the bases for such distributions have varied...