The Faculty of Law, UCC has a strong team of academics who are experts in different branches of law, thus offering the students a good learning and support environment. The Department of Legal Extension (DLE) devises, conducts and organises all the outreach and community-based activities of the Faculty. Its core mandate is to twofold: to bring together all stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of legal policy and to facilitate constant communication between planners, administrators, civil society organisations and citizens.
The Department runs a number of programmes by which it aims at engaging all Faculties within the University and the community at large. In that capacity, its commitments are:
1. Organising and running the Professional Development component of the LLB programme: the Department will run training courses in which students will undertake internships with selected outreach communities and organisations. Its chief objective is not only to avail students of potential research opportunities but also enable them to exchange ideas with professionals on the ground.
2. Holding and hosting periodic conferences, seminars and workshops: the Department will engage specialists drawn from all disciplines, both within and outside the University, in order to address high level policy and legal issues with the aim of influencing policy makers of national development in matters of planning and administration. It is hoped that these fora will generate high quality inter-disciplinary articles for publication and dissemination.
3. Providing legal consultancy services: this will draw on the expertise available across the University to offer cross-disciplinary legal consultancy services for a fee to local, international, public and private organisations as well as industrial and business institutions. Areas of work offered will include company and commercial, finance and banking, agriculture, international and shipping, property and construction, mining and energy, telecommunication and broadcasting, travel and tourism, manufacturing and fishing, distribution and retail, entertainment and media, transfer of technology, development and donor-sponsored programmes.
4. Training workshops for African human rights practitioners: this programme will deploy the expertise of Faculty members to run periodic training programmes for African human rights law practitioners. It will provide working sessions and training manuals on both the substantive and procedural aspects of progressing cases under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The Department handles a Faculty-Student-Community engagement aimed at tapping the pool of the Faculty’s legal expertise to offer legal services to those in the local community who are unable to afford legal services. The DLE also organizes seminars, conferences, and workshops for the various sections of society. Through the provision of, for example pro bono legal services, social capital, sense of trust and shared responsibility would develop that, if transferred to the political and social sphere, will foster social cohesion in communities.
1. Moot Court
The Department of Legal Extension will also be responsible for organising moot court sessions for students. This will form an integral part of the legal education for our students in which students will take part in simulated court proceedings, involving drafting of briefs and participation in oral arguments. Under the supervision of some Faculty members, students will usually spend some time researching and writing the memorials, and then some months practicing their oral arguments before the moot court sessions.
2. Jurists' Confab
The Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast organizes an annual event know as the the JURISTS' CONFAB. It is a meeting of Judges, Legal Practitioners, Law Teachers and Law Students which is convened to reflect on the current state of the law in Ghana and outside. The confab affords students the opportunity to meet, interact and learn from those those they as to be while the judges, legal practitioners, and law teachers, who come from various faculties of law nationwide, also share their experiences and expertise with students of law. Speakers of previous Jurists Confabs included:
2016: Mr Justice S. Marful-Sau, Justice of Court of Appeal,
Prof. Henrietta Mensah Bonsu, UG Faculty of Law,
Mrs Jemimah Oware, Registrar General,
Mrs Mavis Amoah, Director of Legislative Drafting
The Next Jurists' Confab is scheduled to take place in March 2017.
3. Public and Guest Lectures
Throughout the academic year, there are Faculty level lectures given by guest speakers. These lectures are open to all Law students and lecturers. Upcoming lectures are announced through Class Representatives, our Faculty Officer or the Secretariat of the Law Students’ Union. Students are obliged to attend Faculty-level lectures. In addition, there are special university lectures, which are open to everyone. These are usually advertised on the university website, through posters, and via the university radio station. Students are encouraged to patronise the special university lectures.
4. Academic and Industry Linkages
The Faculty is committed to academic excellence, the lawyer’s craft and the highest standards of legal education comparable to any law institution in the world. We provide quality legal education to our students, preparing them adequately to transition into the vocational programme at the Ghana Law School or its equivalent abroad, to study for postgraduate degrees in law or in other disciplines and to take up key roles and leadership positions in society eventually.
The Faculty of Law, through its teaching, research and community engagements, responds to the emerging trends in legal education at the national and international levels. At the same time, it maintains strong ties with wider society by responding to relevant national and international issues, and offering short courses in legal education and other relevant fields.
5. Internships
A distinctive feature of the LLB programme at the University of Cape Coast is its combination of quality legal education with a hands-on engagement with judicial institutions and legal practitioners. For example, students in the second year and third year of the programme are given the opportunity to intern with public sector legal and quasi-legal institutions such as the Judicial Service, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Regional House of Chiefs, the Legal Departments of the District Assemblies, the Legal Aid Board, Ghana Police Service, the Metropolitan Assembly, Attorney-General’s Department and Ghana Prison Service.
The Faculty, through the DLE has initiated internship placements for students in the second and third year during the academic year. Such internships are short-term commitments on specific projects with legal
and quasi-legal institutions. Also, during the long break, second and third year students with a grade point of 3.0 and above are recommended to the Judicial Service for internships. A number of our first batch of students interned at the Supreme Court during the long break of the 2014-2015 academic year. Such internships offer wonderful opportunities for gaining a hands-on practical experience.
