Constitutional interpretation shouldn’t be skewed to favour one party – SC judge nominee

A Supreme Court judge nominee, Justice Sophia Rosetta Bernasko Essah, has urged her colleagues in the judicial sector to be fair and just in delivering their ruling based on Ghana’s constitution.

According to her, the interpretation of the constitution should not be narrowed to the benefit of one party at the detriment of the other in legal cases.

“In interpreting the constitution, it must aim to achieve a social end or benefit and should not be interpreted in the abstract. Interpretation of the constitution must be done purposefully. It should not be narrowed, it should not be doctrinaire, and it should be liberal and broad so that it will achieve the benefits which the good people of this country intended it to achieve,” she noted during her vetting on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.

“In interpreting the Constitution, we must look at the letter of the law, as well as the spirit, which we call the ethos of the law. We developed the ethos through the good people of Ghana’s experiences. Their culture, their values, their expectations. We should look at that one as equally more important than the literal words which have been written”.

She continued: “We must have the heartbeat of the society at hand when we are interpreting the constitution so that we don’t interpret it in the abstract because the constitution has two parts. The letter of the law and the spirit of the constitution”.

Her remarks were in response to a question posed by the National Democratic Congress MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, who requested to know her philosophy of constitutional interpretation.