Ghana’s legal tradition belongs predominantly to the commonwealth tradition but also has elements of two other traditions thus the African law tradition and the religion based tradition. Because of this our legal system is said to be pluralistic. Our legal system is common law based.
Ghana’s legal system is divided into criminal and civil. As far as our actions, conduct and behavior are concerned of which they are so serious as to the safety of our society , such will be classified as criminal. Such conduct is addressed by the state. The citizen may be affected in a way but it is the state which is rather aggrieved. Here the Attorney General represents the government as can be found in art. 88 of our constitution, where it states that the attorney general shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecutions of criminal offences in clause 3.the police also prosecute on behalf of the A.G . They collect information based on the evidence and forward it to the A.G.
As opposed to the criminal jurisdiction, the civil jurisdiction addresses disagreements between private individuals. What our legal system characterize as civil law are actions confined to the private individuals. Here the state does not get involved. It is possible that the private disagreement may degenerate to affect the whole society. Eg. If two people have a disagreement within the street and so attracts the attention of a lot of people in the society, they can be prosecuted for a breach of public peace. Hence it is possible for that to escalate into a crime.
Ghana’s legal system also differentiates by terminologies. In the criminal jurisdiction we say a person has been prosecuted and not sued as in the civil jurisdiction. If the person is prosecuted the result will be whether the person is guilty or not. If the person is guilty, the person will be convicted which would be followed by a sentence in the form of a fine or imprisonment. For imprisonment there is a scale between 0-death. This is because the legal system leaves to the judge the discretion to give his punishment. Generally speaking the law makers attach minimum sentences.
When a person is not guilty however he will be acquitted, then he must be discharged. Art. 19 clause 7 says once a person has been either convicted or acquitted in a court for criminal offence he can ever be charged again for the same offence unless the Superior Court demands so. i.e. double jeopardy.
NB Cost is money that a party might have spent which is leveled against the other party to pay in the course of the trial and not a fine .
The one who initiates the civil procedure is the plaintiff and the other against is the defendant. If you bring an application you are an applicant and the other is the respondent.
In the civil court the outcome is whether the person is liable or not whilst in the criminal jurisdiction the outcome is whether the person is not guilty or not.
Also in the civil jurisdiction the case is proved on equal probability thus 50-50 as of being proven beyond reasonable doubt in criminal cases.
In Ghana’s legal system apart from the above, there are two elements:
*the prohibited act (ACTUS REUS )
*The requisite state of mind(MENS REA).
If the person does the prohibited act without the requisite state of mind then the person is acquitted.
The title of a case can also tell us whether it is civil or criminal.
Republic v. Alex
R. or Rex v. Alexandria
The above is that of the criminal court. The R stands for Rex or Regina meaning king and queen respectively.
But if it is Alex v. Mensah then it is civil.