[ 2013-07-29 ]

Prof. Justice Date-Bah retires with honour
He will be fondly remembered by the bench, the
bar, the media and litigants for his eloquence,
poise and erudite lead judgements.

Prof. Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah, for the last
time on the Supreme Court bench, delivered a
judgement on the fair distribution of property
after the dissolution of marriage.

In a unanimous decision on Friday, July 26, 2013,
the court affirmed its earlier decisions that
there must be equal distribution of property
between a husband and his wife after a divorce.

Other members of the panel were Mr Justice Anin
Yeboah, Mr Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Mr Justice
A. A. Bennin and Mr Justice Joseph B. Akamba.

It was an emotional moment on the premises of the
Supreme Court before he delivered the judgement
when other members of the bench converged to bid a
formal farewell to their long-time colleague,
Prof. Justice Date-Bah.

They later took group photographs with him. Other
members of staff of the Supreme Court Registry
also took memorable photographs with the
celebrated judge.

Appointed as a Supreme Court judge in September
2003, Prof Justice Date-Bah is billed to formally
retire from the bench on August 26, 2013.

Messages

Expressing appreciation for the support lent him
by his colleagues, Prof. Justice Date-Bah said it
was "a rare and fruitful privilege to have served
on the Supreme Court of Ghana".

For his part, Mr Justice William Atuguba described
Prof. Justice Date-Bah as an “illustrious
brother” and wished him well in his future
endeavours.

"We are happy because it’s our obligation to do
honour to our illustrious brother whom I have
appropriately nicknamed Lord Halsbury of Ghana.

“Our brother coming to the bench with the usual
first -distinction, he has always been a man with
first-class achievement,” Mr Justice Atuguba
said fondly.
Wishing the retired Supreme Court judge well, a
member of the bar, Mrs Margaret Yaa Ntiriwaah
Acheampong, stated, “I know you very well and I
know the calibre of person you are. You have
always been a first-class achiever. We pray that
what you have done will go down in history for
generations upon generations. Even though you are
leaving the Judiciary today, we know you are still
going to contribute until the day the Almighty
will call you to rest."

Recent Judgements

Three classical judgements recently delivered by
the Supreme Court were all presided over by Prof.
Justice Date-Bah.

On June 14, 2013, the court directed the
international construction firm, Waterville
Holdings Limited (BVI), to refund all moneys paid
to it by the Ghana government on the premise that
it had no valid and constitutional contractual
agreement with the government.

Waterville is expected to refund 25 million euros
it received from the government following the
court’s unanimous judgement that the contract it
entered into with the government for stadia
construction for CAN 2008 was unconstitutional
because it had contravened Article 181 (5) of the
1992 Constitution which requires such contracts to
go to Parliament for approval.

International warships

On June 20, 2013, the Supreme Court, with Prof.
Justice Date-Bah presiding, barred all lower
courts from detaining any international warship on
the territorial waters of Ghana.

In giving the order, the court held that the High
Court exceeded its jurisdiction when, in October,
2012, it grounded the ARA Libertad, an Argentine
warship, from leaving the shores of Ghana.

In a unanimous decision, the court held that it
was wrong for the lower court to have detained the
vessel in the first place and accordingly
restrained the lower courts from making such
decisions in future.

It held that such acts were dangerous because they
had the tendency of endangering the territorial
sovereignty of Ghana and accordingly quashed an
October 2 and 11, 2012 order of the High Court
which detained the vessel.

Isofoton Order

In another judgement supervised by the renowned
judge, the court, on June 21, 2013 ordered the
Spanish energy company, Isofoton S.A., to refund
the cedi equivalent of $325,472 it received from
the government in March 2011.

The court also directed the company to refund all
moneys it had so far received from the government
on the grounds that the agreements resulting in
the payment were unconstitutional and, therefore,
null and void.

The suits against Waterville and Isofoton were
both filed by a former Attorney-General, Mr Martin
Amidu, who had argued that both payments were
illegal, null and void, of no legal effect and in
breach of Article 181 of the 1992 Constitution
which requires such contracts to receive
parliamentary assent.

He was a Gem

Most lawyers the Daily Graphic spoke to were full
of accolades for Prof Justice Date-Bah, whom they
described as a “gem”, “intelligent”,
“eloquent”, “thorough”, “Ghana’s Lord
Denning,” among a host of impressive names.

Profile

Prof. Justice Date-Bah, who is the Chairman of the
University of Ghana Council, attended Achimota
School from 1956 to 1962 and obtained an LL.B
(First Class Honours) from the University of Ghana
in 1965.

He subsequently qualified as a Barrister at Law
Ghana in 1966; obtained an LL.M from the Yale Law
School in 1967 and a Ph.D from the London School
of Economics, London University, in 1969.

Work Experience:

• 2008 – February 2013: Justice of the Supreme
Court of the Gambia;

• 2003 – to date: Justice of the Supreme Court
of Ghana, responsible for many leading judgments;

• Chairman, Ghana Law Reform Commission;
Chairman, Council of the University of Ghana,
Legon.


Previous Record

• 1984 – 2003: Special Adviser (Legal) at the
Commonwealth Secretariat, London, responsible for
effective legal advisory and negotiating services
to developing member states of the Commonwealth.
He played an instrumental role as leader of a
multidisciplinary Commonwealth Secretariat team
which assisted the first independent Government of
Namibia to negotiate a joint-venture agreement
with De Beers that has been the bedrock of the
Namibian economy since then and several petroleum
exploration agreements with international
petroleum companies on behalf of the government.

• 1969 – 1984: Taught Contract, Tort,
Commercial law and Public International Law during
earlier academic career.
Positions held include:
1969 to 1981, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of
Ghana;
1979-1980, Associate Professor of Commercial Law,
University of Nairobi;

1980-84, Professor and Head of Department of
Private Law, University of Calabar, Nigeria;

He also held visiting academic positions at
Lincoln College, Oxford University (1972), Yale
Law School (1976) and at the University of
Fribourg, Switzerland (1998).

• 1969-1979, Part-time legal practitioner in
Accra.

• In the 1970s, Member of the Ghana Law Reform
Commission.

• In the 1970s, Representative of the Ghana
Government to the United Nations Commission on
International Trade Law. He was elected Chairman
of the commission in 1978.

• 1996 to date: A member of the International
Institute for the Unification of Private Law
(UNIDROIT), Rome, Working Group that produced the
UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial
Contracts.
Membership of learned societies:

• Since 2000, Fellow of the Ghana Academy of
Arts and Sciences; and

• Since 1996, Member of the International
Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law.

By Mabel Aku Baneseh/Ghana
Writer’s email: mabel.baneseh@graphic.com.gh

Source - Daily Graphic

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