The Honorable Joseph Ghartey
Spring 2009 Visiting Distinguished Jurist in Residence

Schedule

Photograph: Joseph Ghartey.The Honorable Joseph Ghartey, former Minister of Justice and former Attorney General, Republic of Ghana, will visit Washburn Law as a Visiting Distinguished Jurist in Residence from February 13-20, 2009. His visit is co-sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Advocacy (CEA), the Business and Transactional Law Center (BTLC), and the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.

Joe Ghartey served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Ghana until January 7, 2009. Born in Accra, Ghana in 1961, Mr. Ghartey had his early education at Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, the oldest all male boarding high school in Ghana. He obtained his LLB (Hons.) in 1986 from the University of Ghana and BL from the Ghana School of Law in 1988.

After Law School, Joe Ghartey, joined the firm of Akufo-Addo, Premepeh & Co., one of Ghana's leading law firms. He left this firm after seven years and co-founded, Ghartey & Ghartey in 1994. This firm specializes in corporate and investment law. He was the Senior Partner of Ghartey & Ghartey until 2004 when he was elected to Parliament.

Joe Ghartey's professional career spans a wide range of experiences as a human activist, a trial lawyer, an academic and a public servant. As an academic he was an adjutant lecturer of Investment law at the University of Ghana Business School. He has also been an adjutant lecturer in Corporate Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Ghana's foremost training institute of public officers. He has also been an instructor of the Ghana Stock Exchange where he has delivered lectures in the legal aspects of the securities industry. In 2004 he authored Ghana's leading legal publication on investment and business, Doing Business and Investing in Ghana, Legal and Institutional Framework.

Mr. Ghartey has also been very active in the area of human rights. He has offered pro bono services to indigent clients on death row and those accused of crimes that attract the death penalty. He was also the co-founder with Nana Akufo-Addo, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice and former foreign minister (secretary of state), of the Ghana Committee on Human and Peoples' Rights. This civil society is a grass roots organization committed to the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms in Ghana.

For several years in the early 1990's Mr. Ghartey was the national secretary of the Committee. In this capacity he conducted research and training, developed programs and delivered several papers on human rights through out Africa. He had the opportunity to present the civil society country report on the human rights situation in Ghana to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In the 1990's he also served as the Chairperson of the Inter African Network of Human Rights Organizations (AFRONET), a coalition of African human rights organizations with its headquarters in Lusaka Zambia. He has also represented West Africa on the CUSO Board, a Canadian international social justice organization.

As Attorney General and Minister for Justice Mr. Ghartey made wide use of his background and experience in the area of human rights. He introduced the Justice for All program, an initiative to bring justice to the door step of all individuals, especially the vunerable in the society. This program has four focus areas: the Remand Review Project, the Sentencing Review Project, the Prosecutors Capacity Building Project, and the Systems and Procedures Analysis Project. These projects are intended to involve all stakeholders in a complete review of the criminal justice system to make it more efficient, effective and humane.

Mr. Ghartey also set up a process to review the business laws of Ghana, including but not limited to, company law, partnership law, and insolvency law. He, together with other members of the Attorney General's Office, reviewed the anti-corruption laws of Ghana and was co-author of an Anti-Corruption Manual published by the Attorney-General's Office. He represented the Republic of Ghana in number of cases in the Superior Courts of Ghana and in international commercial arbitration before international arbitration bodies. Mr. Ghartey was a member of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on oil and gas set up by the government; this Sub-Committee spearheaded Ghana's policy and legislative review after the discovery of oil and gas in Ghana.

In December 2004 Mr. Ghartey sought election to Parliament for the Essikado-Ketan Constituency as a candidate for the New Patriotic Party. He won the seat and became a member of parliament in 2005. In March 2005 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Minister of Justice. In April 2006 he was appointed Attorney General and Minister of Justice, a position he held until January 2009. He was reelected to his constituency for a further four year term in December 2008. He is currently working on three manuscripts: Corporate Governance in Ghana, Chief Justices of Ghana, and The Rule of Law in Ghana. He has also returned to the law firm of Ghartey & Ghartey.