consitution
Citation: 7 U. Ghana L.J. 66 1970
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NOTES AND COMMENTS
ARTICLE 15 OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE
TORT OF FALSE IMPRISONMENT right to personal liberty is heavily protected by Article 15 of the Constitution of the Second Republic of Ghana. The purpose of this note is to explore the effect that the constitutional guarantee of freedom from arbitrary detention is likely to have on the common law tort of false imprisonment.
A much debated issue concerning the tort of false imprisonment is whether knowledge of confinement is an essential ingredient of the tort. Some authors I have argued that the tort protects a mental interest and consequently that the plaintiff must have known of the act causing his confinement, at the time that the defendant committed this act. On the other hand, it can be argued that any confinement of an individual, whether or not he is aware of such confinement, is an infringement of that individual's civil liberty. According to this view, knowledge of the confinement would be completely immaterial.
The protection of the civil liberties of individuals is so important a social and political objective that the fact that the particular individual whose liberty has been restricted is unaware of the restriction should not make any material difference to the enforcement of the principle that nobody's liberty should be curtailed without his consent.
There has been support 2
Content downloaded/printed from
HeinOnline (http://heinonline.org)
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NOTES AND COMMENTS
ARTICLE 15 OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE
TORT OF FALSE IMPRISONMENT right to personal liberty is heavily protected by Article 15 of the Constitution of the Second Republic of Ghana. The purpose of this note is to explore the effect that the constitutional guarantee of freedom from arbitrary detention is likely to have on the common law tort of false imprisonment.
A much debated issue concerning the tort of false imprisonment is whether knowledge of confinement is an essential ingredient of the tort. Some authors I have argued that the tort protects a mental interest and consequently that the plaintiff must have known of the act causing his confinement, at the time that the defendant committed this act. On the other hand, it can be argued that any confinement of an individual, whether or not he is aware of such confinement, is an infringement of that individual's civil liberty. According to this view, knowledge of the confinement would be completely immaterial.
The protection of the civil liberties of individuals is so important a social and political objective that the fact that the particular individual whose liberty has been restricted is unaware of the restriction should not make any material difference to the enforcement of the principle that nobody's liberty should be curtailed without his consent.
There has been support 2