The Re: Akoto and The Supreme Court Revisited

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The Re: Akoto and The Supreme Court Revisited

...As the Supreme Court of Ghana is confronted with constitutional answers to allegations of electoral improprieties that have the effect of subverting the “Security of Democracy”?

The Samaritan Research Group

Keywords: Habeas Corpus Act 1816, Supremacy of Parliament, “Security of the State”- whether detention without trial lawful, whether powers confer on Parliament were in excess and contrary to solemn declaration made by President on assumption office, judicial review, Habeas Corpus- appeal against refusal- whether formal return necessary, peace and wartime measures whether court required to enquire into truth of grounds of detention

MEMO

“In England, amidst the clash of arms, the laws are not silent. They may be changed, but they speak the same language in war as in peace. It has always been one of the pillars of freedom, one of the principles of liberty for which on recent authority we are now fighting, that the judges are no respecters of persons and stand between the subject and any attempted encroachments on his liberty by the executive, alert to see that any coercive action is justified in law...I know of only one authority, which might justify the suggested method of construction. ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less’... After all this long discussion, the question is whether the words ‘If a man has’ can mean ‘If a man thinks he has’. I have an opinion that they cannot and the case should be decided accordingly,” the dissenting opinion of Atkin LJ in Liversidge v. Anderson [1942] AC 206, a case involving the relationship of the courts and the State and the help it can give to the executive in times of national emergency?