Legal luminary and former Director of the Ghana School of Law, Kwaku Ansa-Asare, has cast serious doubts over the prospects of success in any potential legal action involving Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.
Speaking in an interview with TV3 on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 monitored by GhanaWeb, Mr Ansa-Asare questioned the legal merit and strategy behind any such case, particularly if it seeks to challenge Ghana’s constitutional process for the removal of a Chief Justice as outlined under Article 146.
“She is the Chief Justice, she has to respect the Article 146 CJ removal process. If she herself is disrespecting the process, how does she expect the ECOWAS Community Court to intervene?” he queried.
According to him, the ECOWAS Court is not an avenue to circumvent national laws and constitutional provisions, but rather a forum for addressing clear and justiciable violations of human rights.
“They want to find out whether there are any internal mechanisms in Ghana, are there justiciable remedies? She is the Chief Justice, and if she is not prepared and willing to respect her own Constitution, how does she expect the ECOWAS Court to intervene to protect her?” he asked pointedly.
Ansa-Asare was emphatic that the case stands little chance of success.
“I don’t think that the case is going to succeed. This is again one of the cases with the dimmest prospects of success. It is doomed to failure because the ECOWAS Court is a well-respected international adjudicating body. But if you look at what it has done in the past, it has not simply interfered with internal processes. It only assumes jurisdiction in clear cases of violation of human rights.”
“In this case, I can’t find any human rights violation perpetuated against Chief Justice Torkornoo,” he concluded.
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