DR. DATE-BAH JSC:
This case raises interesting constitutional issues going to the very heart of the principle of the rule of law, one of the bedrocks of the 1992 Constitution. The applicant’s contention that public funds and government property cannot be attached in execution of judgment debts puts into issue the accountability of the State to persons who bring action before the courts. The current position regarding the liability of the State to ordinary people in Commonwealth jurisdictions has come about through statutory reform of the original common law position in order to adjust it to the demands of a modern state. The applicant’s contention raises the issue whether the gains of this reform movement are to be lost to litigants before the Ghanaian courts.
At common law, originally, proceedings could be brought against the Crown for breach of contract or restitution of property only after obtaining a fiat from the Crown and through the procedure of the petition of right. Indeed, in …