The respected Minister of Justice and Legal Advisor to Ghana, Hon. Godfred Yeboah Dame has called for a harmonisation of legal systems and elimination of restrictions against lawyers to promote cross-border practice of the law.

The learned Attorney-General made the call on Thursday 19th September, 2024 at the International Bar Association Conference in Mexico City, Mexico. Per Hon. Dame, globalisation and a virtualised world has necessitated the practice of law on a cross-border basis.

Given globalisation and the increasing cross-border nature of legal practice according to the Minister in his speech read to the gathering of lawyers of the International Bar, "If our practice is essentially and unavoidably international or cross- border, then there must be a rethink of the legal framework regulating the practice of lawyers in our respective domestic settings. "We must remove the barriers of licensing regimes which constrain the capacity of lawyers to appear in jurisdictions other than where they were trained to practise, if our practice is indeed, international."

In his defense of this call which may be deemed unrealistic, the learned A-G made analogies with international arbitration as he said "Nations appear before regional courts, international tribunals and arbitration panels constituted to adjudicate cases in accordance with law. The lawyers representing them do not require a specific licensing to appear before such panels. Therefore, it can be done. We can begin with a common understanding to provide for state counsel or lawyers who are constitutionally and statutorily empowered in their respective countries to represent nations in disputes, to be able to, without the inhibition of the requirement for licence to practise, appear freely in domestic courts of other countries when disputes involving the nation occurs. "

Mr. Dame further therefore urged that "We ought to begin the process of removing the regulatory barriers to the appearance of lawyers qualified in other jurisdictions in such proceedings. Such an exception will become the fulcrum for the development of a blueprint for a gradual harmonisation of legal training standards and ethics and the removal of regulatory barriers."

Full speech of the learned Attoreny-General may be read below.

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