Oxymoronic Legalism in the Ghanaian Supreme Court? Case Comment on Attorney-General V Faroe Atlantic Co Ltd.
Richard Obeng Mensah 
Issue: Vol.2 No.10 October 2021 Article 1 pp. 130-138
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20212101 | Published online 20th October, 2021.
© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
In 2005, the Supreme Court of Ghana in Attorney-General v Faroe Atlantic Co Ltd rendered its decision on the interpretation of Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution. The Court’s decision influenced its subsequent decisions in 2011 and 2012 on the scope and application of Article 181(5). This Case Comment reveals that the Court’s interpretation in relation to the PPA in question was oxymoronic in that it simultaneously held the PPA as both valid and void. The author argues that the Court would have rendered a clearer and fairer decision if it had wholly interpreted Article 181. Its partial interpretation, needless bureaucratic judicial process, and the Government’s lack of due diligence are disincentives to private investment in Ghana’s power sector.
Keywords: Ghana, PPA, investment dispute, interpretation, illegal contract, power crisis, power sector investment.
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Richard Obeng Mensah is an assistant lecturer at the Private Law Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi – Ghana; where he teaches Intellectual Property Law, Comparative Law, and Ghana Legal System & Method. His research interests include energy security, climate change, human rights, intellectual property rights, comparative law, and corruption and good governance. He has published in these areas among others. His ongoing doctoral research, at the Faculty of Law, KNUST, focuses on the role of the law in the use of clean development mechanism to promote sustainable investment in clean energy in Ghana. Richard holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from KNUST, Qualifying Certificate in Law (QCL/BL) from the Ghana School of Law, and a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in Energy Law from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. He is a private legal practitioner and a member of the Ghana Bar Association and Advocates Africa/International.
Mensah R.O. “Oxymoronic Legalism in the Ghanaian Supreme Court? Case Comment on Attorney-General V Faroe Atlantic Co Ltd.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 2, no.10 (2021): 130-138 https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20212101
© 2021 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
