Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine
The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has announced plans to present a Legal Practitioners’ Standards Board Bill to Cabinet and subsequently Parliament to establish an independent framework for disciplining legal practitioners.
He said the proposed legislation would promote independent, fair and proportionate disciplinary processes within the legal profession, operating at arm’s length from his office and the government.
The Attorney General made the announcement at the official opening of the Eighth African Colloquium of Parliamentary Legal Counsel in Accra, where he spoke on the theme, “Ethics, Integrity and Legal Accountability”.
The Eighth African Colloquium of Parliamentary Legal Counsel brought together parliamentary legal practitioners and representatives from across the continent to deliberate on ethics, integrity and legal accountability within parliamentary institutions.
He said the principle underpinning the proposed reform was that professional independence must go hand in hand with accountability.
“The demand for independence must be matched by responsibility,” he said, stressing the importance of professional standards and effective disciplinary mechanisms within the legal profession.
Drawing on his experience as a lawyer, a Member of Parliament and now Attorney General, he said legal practitioners serving parliamentary institutions operated in a politically charged environment and had to maintain their professional integrity regardless of the interests involved.
He noted that legislative counsel played a critical role in ensuring that parliamentary business complied with constitutional requirements and that proposed legislation was properly drafted.
According to him, their professional obligations required them to provide candid legal advice, even when such advice was unwelcome to political actors.
He said parliamentary legal counsel must serve both Majority and Minority members impartially, regardless of their political affiliations, adding that their responsibility was to the institution of Parliament and the law.
The Attorney General also identified external influence as a growing ethical concern, noting that legislative proposals increasingly originated from interest groups, development partners and commercial actors.
He urged parliamentary lawyers to identify and declare conflicts of interest to protect the integrity of the legislative process.
Majority Leader
The Majority Leader, James Agalga, defended the independence of parliamentary legal counsel, arguing that their rigorous scrutiny of government legislation strengthens public policy rather than obstructing the Executive’s agenda.
He said independent legal advice was essential to ensuring that legislation arising from complex reforms, fiscal policies and bilateral investment treaties complied with constitutional requirements and could withstand judicial scrutiny.
“The notion that the executive and the legislative majority view independent parliamentary legal counsel with apprehension is wholly mistaken,” he said.
According to him, the national interest required parliamentary lawyers who could subject proposed legislation to rigorous technical scrutiny, identify constitutional vulnerabilities and recommend improvements to legislative language.
He explained that such scrutiny helped prevent procedural invalidation, unnecessary litigation and constitutional uncertainty, ultimately strengthening the legal foundation of government programmes.
“What the majority requires and what the national interest demands is parliamentary counsel capable of subjecting legislation to rigorous technical scrutiny, identifying constitutional vulnerabilities candidly, and improving legislative language so that it can withstand judicial scrutiny,” he said.
Mr. Agalga stressed that parliamentary legal counsel owed their primary obligation to the law, the Constitution and the integrity of the legislature, rather than partisan political interests.
By Ernest Kofi Adu
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