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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Ghanaian judges: career trajectories and self-understanding
| Panel |
17. States at work: African public services in comparative perspective
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| Paper ID | 481 |
| Author(s) |
Budniok, Jan
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Current development discourses consider the rule of law as indispensable for development and sustainable democracy. Like many African states, Ghana includes in her state-programme reforms of the judiciary. Unfortunately, there are only few scholarly studies about the actors at the very centre of judiciaries: judges. My research on judges in Ghana attempts to gain insight into this particular group within the state. This paper presents first results of the ongoing study. I focus on the way judges pursue a career in the Ghanaian judicial service. Based on biographical interviews with 25 judges I sketch out typical points of entry and career trajectories. Drawing on two individual examples, I show the differences between those judges who worked for a long time as private practitioners before joining the bench and those who became judges rather early in their career. The hierarchy’s openness to ‘new comers’ is leading to tensions among judges. Places to be elevated from a Circuit Court to the High Court are limited and the more private practitioners move to the bench, the less Circuit Court Judges can be promoted. But the judicial service’s current reforms re-arrange promotion procedures. |
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