ORAL takes a long vacation!

Not because there are no looting cases to hear. Not because the need to recover public loot has diminished. But because the courts are on long vacation.

That annual reality prompts GOGO to make the same plea every year: Ghana should rethink the long judicial vacation.

This is not an argument against judges taking annual leave. Judges deserve adequate rest. The question is whether the courts should substantially slow down because nearly everyone takes leave at the same time.

The Court Rules provide for three vacation periods, including the long vacation from 1 August to 30 September.

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That long vacation is a colonial inheritance. It emerged at a time when British judges serving in the colonies travelled by ship to England. The journey took weeks in each direction, making extended court closures a practical necessity.

The timing was hardly accidental. It coincided with the British summer, allowing colonial judges to escape the tropical climate and spend an extended period in England with their families.

The colonial courts also operated under a comparatively small and less complex caseload. There were fewer judges, fewer lawyers, fewer litigants, and a far narrower range of disputes than confront the courts today.

Neither of those conditions exists any longer. We now have Ghanaian judges, and there is no compelling reason for them to vacation in England. Even if they wished to, modern air travel has reduced journeys that once took weeks to a matter of hours.

At the same time, the demand for judicial services has grown dramatically. Today’s courts resolve constitutional disputes, complex commercial litigation, sophisticated financial crimes, land cases, family matters, election petitions, and an ever-growing criminal docket.

Yet we continue to organize our courts around a calendar designed for the travel conditions and judicial workload of the 19th century.

Every day a case remains unresolved imposes costs. ORAL waits. Criminal trials wait. Victims wait. Accused persons wait. Families await probate. Businesses await the enforcement of contracts. Investors await commercial certainty. Justice delayed is not merely a legal problem; it is an economic and social one.

The administration of justice is an essential public service. It is no less essential than healthcare, policing, or emergency medical services.

We do not close hospitals because doctors deserve annual leave. We do not suspend policing because police officers are on vacation. We do not park ambulances because paramedics need time off.

These institutions ensure continuity by staggering leave while maintaining uninterrupted service. The courts should do the same.

The solution is not to abolish judicial vacations. The solution is to abolish institutional vacations.

The Supreme Court itself demonstrates that this is achievable. With about 19 Justices, sitting in panels of five, its work can readily be organized so that individual Justices take their annual leave on a rotational basis while the Court continues sitting throughout the year. The same principle can be adapted across the superior courts.

Judicial vacations are only one contributor to delay. Filling judicial vacancies promptly, strengthening case management, embracing technology, reducing unnecessary adjournments, and improving judicial administration are equally important.

But a two-month institutional shutdown rooted in the travel conditions and modest caseload of the colonial era should no longer define the rhythm of justice in 21st century Ghana.

Judges deserve vacations. Courts do not.

Judges should continue to enjoy generous annual leave, but the courts should remain open throughout the year. Justice is too essential a public service to be seasonal.