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Archived Bulletins

July 2003

DEAN CAMPBELL LECTURES AT ASHESI

By Abdul-Latif Issahaku
Class of 2005

The pioneering Class of Ashesi was privileged to have Tom Campbell, Dean of the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, as their lecturer on Constitutional Law. Dean Campbell has been a professor of Law at Stanford University for 19 years. For the first time, some members of the class were introduced to the Ghanaian constitution. Thus, the arrival of Dean Campbell to teach Constitutional Law was a God-sent opportunity to those students who were not familiar with their fundamental rights.

Dean Campbell in only four lessons (2-13 June 2003), covered essential provisions relating to human rights in the Ghanaian Constitution, the United States Constitution as well as International Law. He challenged the class to make an analytical comparison of some provisions in the Ghanaian and the US Constitutions. However, he explained, that provisions in the two constitutions are based on the interest of those countries. Dean Campbell told the class, that the constitution of a country is not exhaustive. He said many cases considered under the constitution are judged by reasoning from the purpose and reasoning by analogy or comparison, as most often cases are not hundred percent clear. The specific governs the general in interpretation of a case within constitutional law. Dean Campbell also pointed out that, reference to other clauses in the Constitution is very important in interpretation of the law.

On International Law, Dean Campbell explained that the Constitution of a country is more important than International Law. He stated that, “when International law and the Ghanaian Constitution are in conflict, Ghanaian law wins”. Several cases in history were looked at including Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines), Charles Taylor’s indictment, and Ariel Sharon in Belgium, Turkish Soldiers in Cyprus, among others. Dean Campbell mentioned that, the Constitution of Ghana like the US Constitution is comprised of the rights of the individual, the rules of government and the Common Law.

One significant difference that Dean Campbell made was the fact that, he declared, “A good teacher should learn from students”. Therefore he made an appointment to meet and learn from the students. At the zenith of his career, he still felt the need to learn more, especially from young students. In short, one could say that, the best way to teach somebody is to get to know the person better. This is believed by many in the class as a practice worthy of emulation by future professors and lecturers to our institution.

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