Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene (centre) flanked on the left by Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie & Justice Richard Adjei Frimpong (JSC), Chair of the Supreme Court @ 150 Anniversary Planning Committee and on the right by Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi II, Chairman for the lecture & President of the National House of Chiefs & the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene
The event offered a profound historical and constitutional examination of the 150-year relationship between Ghana's formal judicial and traditional leadership.
Agyeman-Duah explained that when the Supreme Court was first established under British colonial rule in 1876, it faced strong resistance and lacked local trust. Public confidence in the formal legal system was built decades later through the rise of local legal pioneers like Sir Edward Asafu-Adjaye, alongside charismatic 1940s advocates such as Joe Appiah and Victor Owusu.
Kwame Owusu Sekyere, Ashanti Regional Bar President
The lecture also emphasized that codified constitutionalism is not a foreign import, tracing Ghana's legal roots back to the 777 laws of Komfo Anokye and King Osei Tutu I, which governed society long before colonial structures. This rich traditional heritage heavily influenced the drafting of the 1992 Constitution through key royals and professionals like Nana S.K.B. Asante and Nana Otuo Siriboe II.
Highlighting the power of hybrid justice through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), the speaker noted that the resolution of the protracted Dagbon and Bawku crises by the Asantehene and his Committee of Eminent Chiefs demonstrates how effectively state law and customary authority can collaborate to secure peace.
Looking to the future, the lecture challenged the Judiciary to advance the physical and operational decentralization of Ghana's courts. Furthermore, it recommended building institutional bridges to help the National House of Chiefs and the Supreme Court better harmonize customary law with common law, while creating a robust technological infrastructure to safely integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into judicial administration.