{"id":46254,"date":"2025-09-02T09:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=46254"},"modified":"2025-09-02T09:18:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:18:40","slug":"five-ghanaian-jurists-have-led-foreign-judiciaries-and-one-is-still-serving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2025\/09\/02\/five-ghanaian-jurists-have-led-foreign-judiciaries-and-one-is-still-serving\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ghanaian jurists have led foreign judiciaries \u2014 and one is still serving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana\u2019s legal fraternity has produced at least five citizens who rose to become Chief Justice in other countries \u2014 a rare distinction that underscores the bench\u2019s reputation across the Commonwealth. Today, one of them, Justice Mabel Maame Agyemang, continues to serve as Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands (appointed April 1, 2020; contract extended to 2026).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The list at a glance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fred Kwasi Apaloo \u2014 Chief Justice of Kenya (1993\u201395), after serving as CJ of Ghana (1977\u201386). Kenya\u2019s judiciary lists him among its post-colonial CJs. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Isaac Kobina Abban \u2014 Chief Justice of Seychelles (1990\u201393) before becoming Ghana\u2019s CJ (1995\u20132001). Seychelles\u2019 Supreme Court roll confirms his tenure. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Felix Michael Lartey \u2014 Chief Justice of The Gambia (1999\u20132001). Sources in The Gambia and Ghana identify him as a Ghanaian expatriate judge who headed the Gambian judiciary.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stephen Alan Brobbey \u2014 Chief Justice of The Gambia (2004\u201306), appointed while a Justice of Ghana\u2019s Supreme Court. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mabel Maame Agyemang \u2014 First female Chief Justice of The Gambia (Aug 2013\u2013Feb 2014) and current Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands (since April 2020). The TCI Judiciary and multiple profiles note her incumbency. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Why this matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commonwealth small states and some African jurisdictions routinely appoint seasoned foreign judges to strengthen judicial capacity and independence \u2014 a practice in which Ghanaian jurists have been prominent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bottom line: At least five Ghanaian citizens have served as Chief Justice outside Ghana \u2014 Apaloo (Kenya), Abban (Seychelles), Lartey (Gambia), Brobbey (Gambia), and Agyemang (Gambia; now TCI) \u2014 with Justice Mabel Agyemang still in office today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Editor\u2019s note: This tally focuses on national \u201cChief Justice\/Chief Judge\u201d roles, not presidents of regional courts (e.g., ECOWAS Court) or international tribunals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana\u2019s legal fraternity has produced at least five citizens who rose to become Chief Justice in other countries \u2014 a rare distinction that underscores the bench\u2019s reputation across the Commonwealth. Today, one of them, Justice Mabel Maame Agyemang, continues to serve as Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands (appointed April 1, 2020; contract [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1],"tags":[4899,2437,11555,1149,10507,174,12210,3355,8166,192,4521,8601,10954,12005,7519,5406,11987,10419,1063,1664,1825,594],"class_list":["post-46254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-african","tag-chief-justice","tag-citizens","tag-commonwealth","tag-court","tag-ecowas","tag-female","tag-fred","tag-gambia","tag-ghana","tag-ghanaian","tag-independence","tag-international","tag-judge","tag-judges","tag-judiciary","tag-jurist","tag-justice","tag-kenya","tag-stephen","tag-supreme-court","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46256,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46254\/revisions\/46256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}