1 THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF JUDICIAL REVIEW BY JUSTICE ...

with section 12(1) of the Land (Registration of Deeds) Act (Cap. 57:01). In response,
the Supreme Court held that section 12(1) to the extent that it rendered a final
judgment of the High Court void was unconstitutional, in that it was inconsistent with
the provisions of section 120(2) of the 1997 Constitution which states that:
1) “The judicial power of The Gambia is vested in the courts and shall be
exercised by them according to the respective jurisdictions conferred
on them by law.”
Section 100(2)(c) also provides as follows:
“The National Assembly shall not pass a Bill
.......
c) to alter the decision or judgment of a Court in any proceedings to the
prejudice of any party to those proceedings, or deprive any person
retroactively of vested or acquired rights, but subject thereto, the
National Assembly may pass Bills designed to have retroactive effect.”
The Supreme Court held that s.12(1) of the Land (Registration of Deeds) Act was
unconstitutional and void to the extent that it declared a judgment of the High Court
void.
VI) CONCLUDING REMARKS
The exercise of judicial review in both senses is a vital tool for upholding
constitutionalism and the rule of law. I would like to end my remarks with a
quotation from a judgment I delivered in the Ghana Supreme Court, which sums up
the significance of this judicial role. It is from the case of Adofo v Attorney-General
& Cocobod : 8
“The doctrine of the supremacy of the Constitution should logically imply the
power of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislation in order to
enforce that supremacy. Thus, even if there had been no express power in the
Constitution for this Court to strike down offending legislation, we would
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