Law, Culture and Women's Inheritance Rights in ... - Leitner Center

Your wives shall inherit one quarter of your estate if you die childless. If you leave children,
they shall inherit one-eighth after payment of your debts and any legacies you may have
bequeathed.
Koran, 4:11, 4:12.
[FN139]. See Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 30; Dowuona-Hammond, supra note
35, at 149; Kludze, supra note 41, at 229.
[FN140]. Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 25.
[FN141]. Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 138, 141.
[FN142]. Id.; Agbosu, supra note 42, at 109; see, e.g., Oppong, supra note 54, at 57 (reporting
story of man whose mother was widowed and left with nothing because matrikin of deceased
husband came in and took all that husband owned after he died).
[FN143]. Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 149.
[FN144]. Oppong, supra note 54, at 92-93.
[FN145]. Ghana Const. art. 22.
[FN146]. Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 163 (suggesting that courts are likely to
consider factors such as independent means of surviving spouse, other dependents of the
deceased, provision deceased made for spouse during his or her lifetime in determining
“reasonable provision”); Dankwa, supra note 41, at 3 (commenting in reference to the similar
Article 32(2) of the 1979 Constitution that the “concept of reasonableness excludes the
application of a formula which will lead the courts to give the same share to all widows in all
cases. Each case will have to be decided on its particular facts.”).
[FN147]. Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 163.
[FN148]. Interview with Nana Akufo-Addo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Accra
(June 13, 2001); Interview with Drafting Section, Attorney General's Department, Accra (June
14, 2001).
[FN149]. See Interview with Supreme Court Justices Joyce Bamford Addo, George Acquah,
Sopia Akuffo, Accra (June 11, 2001). A case has been filed, however, alleging that Parliament's
failure to enact legislation under Article 22 violates the 1992 Constitution and calling for such
legislation to be enacted. Legal Resources Centre v. Attorney-General & Speaker of Parliament,
Writ to Invoke Original Jurisdiction, Article 2(1)(a) and 22(2) and 93(2) and 130(1)(a) of the
Constitution, Rule 45 of the Supreme Court Rules, 1996 (C.I.16), Supreme Court, Accra (2001).
[FN150]. Memorandum, Intestate Succession Law, P.N.D.C. L. 111 (1985) (Ghana). Thus, Law
111 removed the discrimination between succession by widows and widowers which existed
under the Marriage Ordinance (Cap. 127) and the Marriage of Mohammedans Ordinance (Cap.