Ghana School of Law PLC: Criminal Procedure (GLC)

It is a written examination set as problem and essay questions requiring application of Ghanaian statutes and case law, not multiple choice. You are expected to identify the governing provision, apply it to the facts and reach a conclusion. The Ghana School of Law confirms the current paper structure and any rubric on its official site.

It is harder in a different way. The LLB tests recall of doctrine; this paper tests whether you can select the correct provision under time pressure and argue both sides of a procedural dispute. Candidates who memorised rules without practising application tend to score in the middle band rather than the top.

Retake and referral arrangements are set by the Ghana School of Law and vary by year and by whether the failure is in a core paper. Do not rely on anecdote from earlier cohorts. Check the current regulations and any supplementary examination notice published by the School before you plan your next attempt.

Start with constitutional foundations and arrest powers, because bail, charge and trial questions all presuppose them. Then work through commencement of proceedings and trial procedure, which carry the most marks. Leave appeals, sentencing and ethics until the statutory backbone is secure, and revise them together since post-conviction orders feed directly into appeal grounds.

The duration of the paper is fixed by the Ghana School of Law and published with the examination timetable each year. Do not assume it matches an LLB paper. Confirm the current duration on the official timetable and rehearse full answers within that limit, because timing, not knowledge, is the usual constraint.

Three recurring causes: answering what the law is rather than what the client should do; citing a case without extracting the principle; and ignoring the procedural stage the facts describe. A submission of no case is not the same as a closing address, and examiners penalise answers that blur stages or skip the remedy being sought.

You should know the key sections of Act 30 and Act 459 well enough to cite them accurately - arrest, bail, charge, plea, no case submission and appeal. Precise citation signals competence. If you cannot recall a number, name the provision's subject matter and the statute rather than inventing a section, which reads as fabrication.

Both are required, and they do different work. The statute supplies the rule and the section number; the case law shows how the courts interpret it, particularly on constitutional challenges to arrest, admissibility of confessional statements and sentencing discretion. An answer with sections but no authority, or authority with no section, is incomplete.

Criminal Procedure is one paper within the broader Professional Law Course assessment structure, which includes other substantive and procedural subjects. The number of papers, their sequencing and any exemptions are determined by the Ghana School of Law. Consult the School's official programme information for the current arrangement.