The De Facto Mineral Rights Holder: Corporate Personality, Constitutional Reference, and the Architecture of Derivative Criminal Liability in Republic v Bernard Antwi Boasiako

This article proceeds in five substantive parts. Part II examines the constitutional reference application and the court’s refusal to stay its hand under article 130(2). Part III, which forms the analytical core of the article, interrogates the lifting of the corporate veil and the novel characterization of the first accused as the ‘true and de facto mineral rights holder’. Part IV dissects the architecture of the facilitation offence under section 99(2)(b) of the Minerals and Mining Act and the derivative liability it imposes. Part V considers the court’s use of circumstantial evidence and the proportionality of the sentence. Part VI concludes with reflections on the wider implications of the judgment for Ghanaian law.