The author of this commentary recalls the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC’s) manifesto commitment before Ghana’s 2024 elections to “conduct a comprehensive review of legal education to build a modern legal and institutional framework to expand access to legal education in Ghana and serve national development goals”. The author argues that some public comment has suggested that this Act has not brought about any change, however, he argues that in order to fully understand the implications of the Legal Education Act, 2026, it is important to distinguish between different stages of legal education.
Section 45 of the act addresses admission to law programmes, including LLB admission standards, while a separate provision refers to minimum entry requirements for Law Practice Training. Since the Council which will be responsible for determining the minimum requirements for Law Practice Training has not yet been constituted, it is too early to state what these will be. The author’s main argument is that the reform introduced by the Act should be understood as expanding access to professional legal education by allowing accredited institutions to run professional training, instead of preserving the previous model in which LLB holders competed for limited Ghana School of Law places, in line with the NDC’s manifesto intention.