Quasi-state of emergency: assessing the constitutionality of Ghana’s legislative response to Covid-19
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Date
2020-06-15
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KNUST.
Abstract
On 15 March 2020, the President of the Republic of Ghana addressed the nation
on anti-coronavirus measures which took effect immediately. He directed the
Attorney-General to submit an emergency legislation to Parliament and the
Minister for Health to issue an immediate Executive Instrument to regulate
the relevant measures. Five days later, Parliament passed the Imposition of
Restrictions Act, 2020 (IRA) after a voice count in its favour. A few days,
thereafter, the President issued an Executive Instrument (E.I. 64) pursuant to
the IRA. The minority members of Parliament, some legal scholars and
interested Ghanaians expressed their disapproval of the procedures leading to
the enactment of the IRA as well as its nature, form and content. The
contentions cover multiple constitutional and legal grounds including the
procedural propriety of using a voice vote in Parliament for emergency
legislation, the necessity of a new emergency legislation and the time limit for
the new emergency legislation. Essentially, these issues point to assessing the
overall constitutionality of the law-making procedures and legislative
provisions of the IRA. This is the focus of this paper. The paper argues that
the IRA stands unconstitutional from the very beginning of its intended
existence. The paper concludes that while the IRA is currently operational, its
continued existence is challengeable under the 1992 Con
Description
This work is submitted into Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences.