• The Property Law of Ghana

    This book consists of six related but separate parts combined in thirteen continuous chapters of land law. The thirteen chapters are fundamentally concerned with the development of the customary land law through the Ghanaian courts. In the first part, the main concepts underlying land law as well as the general characteristics of land are traced and analysed. The second segment deals with the law relating to interests in land, including modes of acquisition and loss of title. Tenancies and pledges are examined in their own right. Part 3 considers the nature of the customary law family, focusing on the composition of the family, the rights of members and the role of the head of family. In Part 4, rules regarding transfer of interests are considered within the general body of case law. This is followed logically by a consideration of the applicable doctrines of English law in Part 5. The final segment directs analysis at the impact of state legislative activity on customary law.

    The rules of customary law were developed from pre-colonial times. It might be thought that the rules might be full of hoary anachronisms. The continuous decisions of the courts and the full impact of legislative activity have been the guiding hand in steering the customary land law in consonance with social and economic developments. No one argues that the customary law is in need of purgation. Principles derived from English equity jurisprudence have steadily worked their way into customary notions, particularly in the form of acquiescence, introducing equity’s peculiar element of fairness into the relevant customary law rules. Some of the perceived harshness or inadequacy of the customary land law have also been cured by legislation.

    The present work is not a mere rearrangement of emphasis of the land law. I have attempted to bring into one coherent view the ideas expressed by the established jurists. The law we work with is constantly changing. It is constantly between the hammer and the anvil, changed and reshaped by judicial and statutory intervention. New answers are found as problems without judicial precedent press for statutory solution. Where authoritative answers cannot be found for such problems, I have relied on the evidence of actual social practice. Overall this book captures the restlessness of the indigenous law and the constant push for change. Several of the topics that dominated the old texts are receding. Statute law now overshadows many areas of the customary law.

    There is considerable imbalance in the rendering of the customary land law of Ghana. Although this is a book on the customary land law of Ghana, a disproportionate number of both actual examples and case-law are drawn from southern Ghana. It reflects the general lacuna in current literature. This deficiency points to the urgent necessity of prosecuting a similar task in relation to the customary law of northern Ghana.

  • From Britain to Bokoor: The Ghanaian Musical Journey of John Collins

    Highlife, a popular West African genre, is easily the soundtrack to the life journey of the nation Ghana. And if there is one personality who has contributed the most to documenting it, it is Professor John Collins, a naturalized Ghanaian of British descent and a professor of music at the University of Ghana, Legon. Collins originally accompanied his parents to Ghana in 1952, when his father was setting up the philosophy department at the University of Ghana. Returning to Britain with his mother, Collins was educated in Bristol, Manchester and London, earning a science degree. He was also playing music and then he returned to Ghana in 1969 to study archaeology and sociology at the University of Ghana.

    Eventually he himself became an academic teaching and researching popular music. This book captures the life and music career of Collins. What makes him an enigma is his personal involvement on the road as a guitar playing member of concert party bands. His working relations with Fela, E.T. Mensah, Kofi Ghanaba, Victor Uwaifo, Prof. J. H. Kwabena Nketia and many legendary names in the music space of West Africa make him a legend in his own right. This is the story of a “white man” man who came to Africa to legitimize the place of highlife as consequential to world music

  • Medical Law in Ghana: A Primer (Hardcover)

    Transcending the traditional compartments with which lawyers are familiar, medical law is concerned with issues arising from physician or doctor-patient relationship. Medical Law in Ghana – A Primer seeks to present an exposition of health care law and medical law in Ghana as embodied in both statutory and case law. It addresses the law dealing with doctor-patient relationship; confidentiality and access to medical records; medical education, professional regulation of doctors, nurses and pharmacists; assisted reproduction, euthanasia (assisted dying), clinical trials.

    After a general introduction, the book systematically describes law related to the medical profession, proceeding from training, licensing, and other aspects of access to the profession, through disciplinary and professional liability and medical ethics considerations and quality assurance, to such aspects of the physician (doctor)-patient relationship as rights and duties of physicians and patients, consent, privacy, and access to medical records. Also covered are specific issues such as organ transplants, human medical research, abortion, and euthanasia, as well as matters dealing with the physician in relation to other health care providers, health care insurance, and the health care system.

    This book is intended to serve as useful source of authoritative information and guide for lawyers, students, health care professionals and all those that have interest in the interface between law and medicine, medical law, bioethics and medical ethics. Succinct and practical, this book will prove to be of great value to professional organizations of physicians, nurses, hospitals, and relevant government agencies. Lawyers representing parties with interests in Ghana will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its comparative value as a contribution to the study of medical law in the international context.

  • Law of Landlord and Tenant in Ghana

    The present work brings to completion my effort to state the complete law of property of Ghana. It was inspired by my earlier work on the customary land law of Ghana. The customary law remains the heart of the Ghanaian land law, but the story of the property law of Ghana is incomplete without a comprehensive account of the received law of property. The present work, therefore, brings to a full circle my efforts to state accurately and wholly the property law of Ghana. The field of Ghanaian property law is dominated by a combination of foreign and indigenous concepts. Arguably, the theoretical aspects of the property law of Ghana stand in need of resolution of the tensions between the two sources of law.

    The development of the English law of property was deeply marked by the early activities of the King’s Court and its administration of a centralised system of law as distinguished from an earlier system of localised customary law, varying from place to place. Modified by equity, its doctrines were developed from a centralised system of records. A course in property law ought to equip the student with the entire range of concepts in the field, closely analysed. Described elsewhere as a rubbish heap that has been accumulating for centuries and understood only by the professors, the English law of property does not lend itself to easy understanding. Imposing structure upon a subject comprising essentially English law of property and applying it to Ghanaian circumstances has not been easy. To help the student grasp the interlocking nature of the concepts, and to gain rounded and more profound insights about the various rights and liabilities attached to interests in land, a persistent effort is made to connect the material to Ghanaian cases and statutes.

  • Ghana Law of Wills

    The succession law of Ghana has undergone enormous change since the enactment of the Wills Act, 1971. Relevant literature has hardly kept pace with changes in statutory and judge-made law. The need for a comprehensive statement of the pertinent law has made itself felt for quite a long time. In response, several eminent jurists have grappled with some of the major problems associated with succession. The present account seeks to provide a detailed assessment, analysis, evaluation and critique of the law of wills of Ghana.

    Basically founded upon analysis of the Wills Act, 1971 of Ghana and relevant English principles, the discussion here also traverses a wider field. The end result is an opus that interweaves essentially English concepts of the law of wills with equivalent Ghanaian developments. The topics for discussion are broadened to include indigenous forms of testation.

    The book is broken into appropriate divisions and subdivisions to facilitate fuller discussion of each topic, largely along conventional formats for the analysis of the law of wills. The underlying theme is concerned with the devolution of a person’s assets upon death. Both the substantive and procedural laws are considered in some detail and on the basis of consistent principles of law. Various types of wills and rules for the making and revocation of wills as well as laws dealing with privileged wills, incorporation of documents, revival and republication, legacies and the construction of wills are analysed extensively with a view to encapsulating the corpus of the law of wills.

  • The Sickle Cell Disease Patient

    The work presented in this book is an attempt at a comprehensive statement of the natural history of the sickle cell disease patient and is based upon more than 1500 consecutive patients personally observed and followed up by the author for more than five years. Comments and discussions are, however, based on experience acquired from active supervision of a total of over 3,000 sickle cell disease patients in Ghana between 1965 and 1977, giving a rough experience value of close to 30,000 patient-years.

    Sickle cell disease is defined and the various genotypes and phenotypes comprising the disease are clarified. More than 70 years of actively expanding literature has been reviewed, including new information on the molecular pathology and pathophysiology of these haemoglobinopathies. The epidemiology of sickle cell disease, together with a catalogue of clinical features and complications, as witnessed by the author in Accra, have, with the aid of computers, been stated in quantitative terms.

    The work shows that sickle cell disease is a problem of great magnitude, deserving of national and international attention. An approach to treatment is given, with greater emphasis on patient management than is usual, paying attention to aggravating factors such as infections within poor socio-economic conditions and stressing the importance of genetic counselling and family planning for patients.

  • Highlife Time 3

    Highlife is Ghana’s most important modern home grown dance-music that has its roots in traditional music infused with outside influences coming from Europe and the Americas. Although the word ‘highlife’ was not coined until the 1920s, its origins can be traced back to the regimental brass bands, elite-dance orchestras and maritime guitar and accordion groups of the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. Highlife is, therefore, one of Africa’s earliest popular music genres.

    The book traces the origins of highlife music to the present – and include information on palmwine music, adaha brass bands, concert party guitar bands and dance bands, right up to off-shoots such as Afro-rock, Afrobeat, burger highlife, gospel highlife, hiphop highlife (i.e. hiplife) and contemporary highlife.
    The book also includes chapters on the traditional background or roots of highlife, the entrance of women into the Ghanaian highlife profession and the biographies of numerous Ghanaian (and some Nigerian) highlife musicians, composers and producers. It also touches on the way highlife played a role in Ghana’s independence struggle and the country’s quest for a national – and indeed Pan-African – identity.

    The book also provides information on music styles that are related to highlife, or can be treated as cousins of highlife, such as the maringa of Sierra Leone, the early guitar styles of Liberia, the juju music of Nigeria the makossa of the Cameroon/ It also touches on the popular music of Ghana’s Francophone neighbours.

    There is also a section on the Black Diasporic input into highlife, through to the impact of African American and Caribbean popular music styles like calypsos, jazz, soul, reggae, disco, hiphop and rap and dancehall. that have been integrated into the highlife fold. Thus, highlife has not only influenced other African countries but is also an important cultural bridge uniting the peoples of Africa and its Diaspora.

    Highlife Time 3

    250.00

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