Criminal jurisdiction and venue of Ghanaian courts
This domain tests two questions: which court has power to try the offence, and in which locality the trial should take place. Both are jurisdictional and cannot be cured by consent.
Hierarchy and criminal powers
- District Court: summary offences, with limited sentencing power both as to imprisonment and fine; it also conducts committal proceedings.
- Circuit Court: wider original criminal jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction over District Courts.
- High Court: original criminal jurisdiction in serious cases and supervisory jurisdiction over lower courts through certiorari, prohibition, mandamus and revision.
- Court of Appeal: appeals from the High Court.
- Supreme Court: final appeals and constitutional interpretation.
- Juvenile Court: persons under 18 under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2003 (Act 653), with procedures different from adult courts.
Territorial venue
- General rule: the offence is tried in the court for the place where it was committed.
- Exceptions: offences committed on journeys or at sea, continuing offences, offences partly committed in Ghana, and statutory extraterritorial jurisdiction such as piracy, drug trafficking and offences on aircraft.
- Transfer may be ordered to avoid inconvenience, delay or prejudice, on application or by the court of its own motion.
Worked example
A theft charge is filed in Accra although the property was taken from a shop in Tamale. At first appearance the accused objects to territorial jurisdiction. The court should decline jurisdiction and either order transfer or discharge the charge so that it can be properly filed in Tamale. Contrast: money obtained in Accra by a false representation and collected in Tamale; here the offence is partly committed in each place, so the court for either locality may try it. The objection must be taken early; raising it after plea invites an adverse view.
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing criminal territorial jurisdiction with civil venue rules.
- Assuming the parties can consent to a court that lacks jurisdiction.
- Ignoring sentencing limits: a District Court cannot impose a term the statute allows but its own jurisdiction does not.
- Forgetting that the Juvenile Court has its own procedures and that trying a juvenile as an adult is a jurisdictional error.