Unlawfully obtained evidence in Ghana: discretion, not automatic exclusion

Students arriving from American textbooks often expect evidence obtained in breach of the law to be excluded as a matter of course. Ghanaian law takes a different route.

The courts have treated admissibility as a matter of discretion. Relevance remains the starting point under the Evidence Act, 1975 (NRCD 323), and the question becomes whether admitting the evidence would be unfair or would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

Constitutional rights shape that discretion. Where evidence is obtained through a serious breach of the right to privacy, the courts have been more willing to exclude it.

Search for the phrase “administration of justice into disrepute” in Research Desk and limit it to the Supreme Court to see the leading passages side by side.