By Barbara Kumah
A Ghanaian Judge currently at the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights, Justice Sir Dennis Adjei has been appointed to the Fellowship of the Inns of Court at the Institute of Legal Studies for the 2022-23 academic year.
His selection like others was based on votes by the Selection Committee of the Inns of Court made up of the Director, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
Professor Carl Stychin, and four others from the Inner Temple, Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, and Middle Temple respectively.
The core mandate of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies is the promotion, facilitation, and dissemination of results of advanced legal studies and research for the benefit of persons and institutions situated in the United Kingdom and beyond.
Established in 1991 in keeping with the above, the Institute released its first Law Review on 9th March 2008. Edited the ILS Law College Platinum Jubilee Commemoration Volume, along with Dr. S.P. Sathe, titled “Liberty, Equality, and Justice: Struggles for a New Social Order”- 2003, EBC Publishing (P) Limited, Lucknow.
A fellow is required to conduct research on a given topic and submit a detailed report on the same within one month after its completion.
Further to the above he/she will play a consultative and advisory role to postgraduate research students working in similar fields of research and scholarship.
The Institute’s Inns of Court Fellow for 2021-22, a judge in the New Zealand Court of Appeal, Justice Forrie Miller was made to champion a New Zealand Research.
Justice Dennis Adjei’s research will be based on the right to information, the protection of persons seeking information for the entrenchment of democracy, and the role played by the citizenry to hold governments accountable.
The Inns of Court Fellowship is open to Senior Judges from the following countries; Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States (federal)
Each year, nominations for the Fellowships are sought from the Chief Justices of each jurisdiction for the selection and ultimate election of a Fellow to serve a twelve-week (12) term.
Through a rigorous examination process, the above applicants are shortlisted to three(3) and voted upon by the Institute’s Selection Committee.
For the 2022-2023 selection process, the three persons shortlisted were from Canada, Ghana, and South Africa out of which the renowned Ghanaian Justice was elected.
Justice Sir Dennis who is set to resume his fellowship on January 5, 2023, will be the first Judicial fellow from West Africa and the second in Africa.
