A study of manifestations of political polarization as structural violence. A case study of Ghana’s 2020 Election

This research will use the case of Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections in 2020 to illustrate how polarization manifests in the power struggle and is fueled by structural violence in the constitutional and institutional arrangements towards elections. Ghana is often considered a model of African democracy with a track record of peaceful elections, regular changes of power since its return to democratic rule in 1992. However, the political environment has become increasingly polarized, creating tension, violence, and distrust of the electoral process. The research aims to understand how political polarization constitutes a form of structural violence within Ghana’s internationally acclaimed peaceful democratic development, using the 2020 election as a case study. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following question: How does political polarization manifest as structural violence in Ghana’s democratic political culture? Using the case study method, the thesis analyses news articles from the vertical portal GhanaWeb

Harmonizing Cultural IP Across Borders: Fashionable Bags & Ghanaian Adinkra Symbols

Global copyright and trademark laws protect symbols, names, and literary and artistic works. However, when their primary significance is cultural, because they are neither individual original works nor symbols that are used as commercial identifiers, intellectual property laws do not protect these symbols or artistic works. This is true, even if these goods are protected under national laws as part of that nation’s cultural heritage. Once these cultural goods cross borders, there is no international law that will enable the country from which these goods originate to assert its rights in other countries. This Article characterizes these cultural goods as trade-related cultural intellectual property and proposes that, with some revisions to existing international agreements, this gap in the law can be addressed

Humanizing Intellectual Property: Moving Beyond the Natural Rights Property Focus

This Article compares the natural rights property framework with the international human rights framework for intellectual property. These two frameworks share a common theoretical basis in the natural rights tradition but appear to lead to conflicting outcomes. Proponents of natural rights to intellectual property tend to support more expansive intellectual property protections. Yet, advocates of a human rights approach to intellectual property contend that human rights will have a moderating influence on intellectual property law. This Article is among the first scholarly works to explore the apparent conflict between these two important frameworks for intellectual property. It concludes that a human rights approach to intellectual property enriches the natural rights intellectual property dialogue by broadening the analysis to acknowledge and value human interests that go beyond the individual property interest

Socially Responsible Corporate IP

Many companies practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) as part of their branding and public relations efforts. For example, as part of their CSR strategies, some companies adopt voluntary codes of conduct in an effort to respect human rights. This Article contemplates the application of CSR principles to trade-related intellectual property (IP). In theory, patent and copyright laws promote progress and innovation, which is why IP rights are beneficial for both IP owners and for the public. Trademark rights encourage businesses to maintain certain standards and allow consumers to make more efficient choices. Though IP rights are often discussed in relation to the value they provide for business purposes, trade-related IP can also promote human progress, including as it relates to health, education and culture. A CSR model for international intellectual property offers an additional strategy to support ongoing efforts to make IP-related trade agreements more sensitive to human needs

Human Development as an Intellectual Property Metric

(Excerpt) This Essay argues that human development should be adopted as a metric for IP because it is a useful and relevant metric, and one that can be invoked under both the natural rights and utilitarian frameworks. Metric, as used here, refers to a method for measuring the effects of IP laws. Part I of this Essay will provide a brief overview of some of the reasons for the dissatisfaction with current IP law before making the connection between IP and human development in Part II. Part III explains how human development can be adapted as a metric for IP under both utilitarian and natural rights frameworks, while Part IV offers some examples of how a human development metric could apply to IP law. This project does not purport to comprehensively answer the question of how best to integrate human development as a metric into IP law. However, it will offer some preliminary suggestions about how this metric could apply to some traditional frameworks for IP in light of the core goals of the global regime and the explicit objectives of the TRIPS Agreement

Are we still Shona? An AOTS framework approach to navigating immigration-related identity

Using the African Oral Traditional Storytelling (AOTS) Framework as a culturally centered and responsive storytelling approach to studying with African peoples, this article shares the experiences of a Shona family in the United States of America as they navigate the maintenance and/or retention of their native language and culture as well as transmitting these to their children. Thus, using storytelling as analysis and theory, this article contributes to the discourse on African immigrant identity conceptualization and reconceptualization through a decolonial lens with the aim of encouraging conversations on the gradual linguistic and cultural genocide that continues to plague Africans as we critically wrestle with the lingering effects of colonialism and the lure of global mobility

Trends of reported foodborne diseases at the Ridge Hospital, Accra, Ghana: a retrospective review of routine data from 2009-2013

Consulting Room Register. (PDF 122 kb

An Empirical Analysis of the Incidence of Corporate Income Tax in Ghana (1997-2006)

The corporate income tax is levied on earnings at the corporate level and shareholders pay taxes again on these earnings when they are paid out as dividends. This double taxation has been a concern of policy makers and its effects on economies have been analyzed and discussed by researchers in many disciplines. This study uses a financial statement data from ten (10) manufacturing companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange over a ten year period spanning from 1997 to 2006. The simple ordinary least squares regression is used for models representing each of the three players over time. The results showed a negative relationship between returns to shareholders and the tax, indicating that returns decrease when the tax increases. The results also showed a negative relationship between the cost of labour and the tax, indicating that an increase in the tax will lead to a decrease in the cost of labour (wages).  Finally, the results showed a significant positive relationship between the gross profit percentage and the tax; indicating that consumer prices may increase in relation to an increase in the tax rate. Key words: Corporate Income Tax, Incidence of tax, Regression analysis, Ghan