PROFESSOR STEPHEN KWAKU ASARE V. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL

JUDGEMENT

ATUGUBA, J.S.C.

In modern times the courts have shed much of their conservatism in the construction of statutes. The purposive rule of construction is now the dominant rule for the construction of statutes. This in effect gives reality a triumph over dogmatic theories of law. However the ascertainment of the true purpose of a statute has to be watched so as to prevent conjectures of all sorts having an undue sway on the construction of statutes. In this connection certain rules of construction of statutes should now gain more weight than they had before. Some of them are, that, as Taylor JSC said in Mekkaoui v. Minister of Internal Affairs (1981) GLR 664 S.C. at 719:

“I believe it is now trite law and there is no need to cite any authority to support it, that in all statutes, the legislature or the lawgiver is presumed to have legislated with reference to the existing state of the law.”

Very similar to this view is the view that the context of the statute inclusive of its surr…