Property Rights of Spouses in Marital Relationships in Ghana - Is There the Need for Additional Legislative Intervention?

Abstract

It is the inalienable right of every human being to live and enjoy life with all the provisions as nature permits. To this extent, enjoyment of rights with the view to sustaining the social cohesion include but not limited to the right to hold and own property. Property ownership and/or acquisition can be achieved solely as a single person and/or jointly with others. It is the view of the author that the most common means of property acquisition is during subsistence of relationships, especially marriages. Besides, the type of marriage one contracts does not actually determine the mode and means of property acquisition. Thus what appears to be apparent is that the marriage itself does not create any challenge during its subsistence within which property is acquired. The challenge erupts after the acquisition of more than one property coupled with the mutable, fluid and dynamic attitude of not only the couples but also their respective relations, friends and loved ones. Though the couples themselves may understand each other, the influence of their respective relations, friends and loved ones, has the potential of dislocating and dislodging the mindset of the couples to a very large extent that it can lead to the irreconcilable and irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. It is against this backdrop that this paper seeks to tease out the effect of the irreconcilable and irretrievable breakdown of marriage on the property or properties acquired during the subsistence of the marriage. The paper looks at the international conventions, protocols, agreements, vis-à-vis the domestic of laws of Ghana juxtaposing them with judicial decisions to make its findings and recommendations.