Justice Pwamang, who is also a member of the General Legal Council; the body responsible for legal education in Ghana, was speaking in an interview with the Deputy Director of Communications, Judicial Service, Ms. Rosemary M. Gaisie, on his return from a study visit to Bucerius Law School in Humburg, Germany, as part of his quinquennial leave requirements.
Quinquennial leave is a sabbatical that each Judge is entitled to take every five years. In fulfillment of this requirement, Judges visit other law jurisdictions during the legal vacation in Ghana; which runs between August 1 and September 30 each year. As a cross jurisdictional learning tour, Judges are required to visit courts or academic institutions and return refreshed with new ideas to improve on their judicial responsibilities.
Giving an account of his visit to Germany’s first Private Law School, Justice Pwamang said, it was both a pleasure and an honour meeting to share and exchange ideas with Professor Michael Grunberger, President of Bucerius Law School and the School’s Director of Foreign Language Communication; Ms. Lezel Roddeck, who is also an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa.
“I found the discussions very beneficial to the work I do as a Judge and also as someone involved in legal education in Ghana” he stated.
According to Justice Pwamang, the meeting agreed to formalize discussions as early as possible for deeper collaboration on “exchange of knowledge and experience in legal studies and legal education between Bucerius Law School in Humburg and the University of Ghana School of Law, as well as the Ghana School of Law, which trains professional lawyers in Ghana”.
Following from the visit by the Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, the Director of Foreign Language Communication at the Bucerius Law School; Ms. Lezel Roddeck in a communication, stated, ‘I greatly valued the opportunity to hear about legal education in Ghana and to exchange perspectives by sharing experiences from Germany, as well as from other common law jurisdictions and my own background as a South African attorney working in legal education here in Germany.” Ms. Roddeck added “I look forward to maintaining our dialogue and to further exchanging ideas in the future”
Justice Pwamang described the move as an opportunity for both sides to explore more in the area of quality legal education and by extension, discuss issues of mutual interest.