Conflict Of Law Case Study

Rukaya Moro “If we all stayed in our various villages, there will be no need for the Conflict of Laws”

The study of conflict of laws forms an integral part of every society. The existence of conflict of laws has its origin in the diversity of the laws existing in various territorial legal divisions and is the artificial product of the law itself. It is natural that people should wish to set up families, to own property, to trade, and even that they should commit torts and crimes. Hence the statement that “if we all stayed in our various villages, there will be no need for the conflict of laws” cannot be agreed with.

In Ghana, Conflict of Laws comprises of Private International Law and Internal Conflict of Laws. According to Cheshire and North, Private International Law is that part of law which comes into operation whenever the courts are faced with a claim that contains a foreign element. Where foreign element is that part of the matter before a court that is only properly resolved by the consideration of rules external to the Ghanaian legal system.

Abboud also depicts Internal Conflict of Laws. In this case, the Court of Appeal had to resolve the issue of which law was applicable to the distribution of the immovable property left by two Lebanese brothers who had died intestate. Since this was immovable property situate in Ghana, it was clear that by private international law, Ghanaian law was applicable. However, the question was, which system of Ghanaian law? The court held that since the deceased brothers did not establish ties to Ghana, they were therefore not under the purview of customary law, their estates had to be administered according to common law principles which forms part of the laws of Ghana (because the properties were located in Ghana) applied. Another example is In re Larbi: Larbi v. Larbi which was a case involving family members hailing from patrilineal and matrilineal communities and this was the focal point of the entire