Samuel Kofi Date-Bah (August 26, 1943) is an academic and a former

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and the

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

Early life and education

Justice Professor Samuel Date-Bah was born on February 26, 1943, in Ghana. He entered

Achimota School Achimota School ( /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school wa ...

, in 1956, where he completed in 1962. He was admitted to the Law Faculty of the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

, Legon, in 1963, and graduated with an LL.B (First Class Honours) in 1965 and a Barrister at Law (BL.) Diploma in 1966. He proceeded immediately to the

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, from where he obtained a Master’s in Law(LL.M) in 1967 and a Ph.D. in law in 1969 from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He was called to the Ghana Bar in 1966.

Career

Academia

From 1969 to 1984 he taught various courses in various academic institutions including Contract, Tort, Commercial law and Public International Law. Academic positions he held include: 1969 to 1981, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor, Faculty of Law,

; 1979-1980, Associate Professor of Commercial Law,

University of Nairobi , mottoeng = In unity and work , image = Uon emblem.gif , image_size = 210px , caption = Coat of Arms of the University , type = Public , endowment ...

; 1980–84, Professor and Head of Department of Private Law, University of Calabar, Nigeria; He also held visiting academic positions at

Lincoln College, Oxford University Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

(1972),

(1976) and at the

University of Fribourg The University of Fribourg (french: Université de Fribourg; german: Universität Freiburg) is a public university located in Fribourg, Switzerland. The roots of the university can be traced back to 1580, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(1998).

Justice of the Supreme Court

He was also a Justice of the

Supreme Court of Ghana The Supreme Court of Ghana is the highest judicial body in Ghana. Ghana's 1992 constitution guarantees the independence and separation of the Judiciary from the Legislative and the Executive arms of government.1992 Constitution Article 125( ...

from 2008-2013. In the 1970s, he was a Member of the Ghana Law Reform Commission and Between 1969 and 1979 he was a part-time legal practitioner in Accra. He has since 2000 been a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and since 1996 a member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He is currently the Chairman, Ghana Law Reform Commission and Chairman, Council of the

, Legon. He is also the Board Chairman of the Data Protection Commission of Ghana.

International engagements

Between 1984 and 2003 Professor Date-Bah was the Special Adviser (Legal) at the

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

responsible for effective legal advisory and negotiating services to the developing member states of

the Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...

. He played instrumental role as leader of a multidisciplinary Commonwealth Secretariat team which assisted the first independence Government of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

to negotiate a joint-venture agreement with

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...

that has been the bedrock of the Namibian economy since then; and several petroleum exploration agreements with international petroleum companies on behalf of the government. In the 1970s, Representative of the Ghana Government to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. He was elected Chairman of the commission in 1978. Since 1966 he has been a member of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law UNIDROIT, Rome, Working Group that produced the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts.http://www.unidroit.org/english/publications/review/articles/2004-2-datebah-e.pdf

References