Section 17(1): common law and the doctrines of equity
It is further contended that by reason of the provisions of subsection (1) of section 17 of the Interpretation Act, 1960 that: “the common law, as comprised in the laws of Ghana, consists, in addition to the rules generally known as the common law, of the rules generally known as the doctrines of equity,” “legal estate and equitable estates (or interests) are now one and the same thing,” to use the words of learned counsel for the respondents. In my opinion, however, the contention is not well-founded, and appears to stem from a misapprehension similar to that which became current shortly after the enactment of the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts, 1873 and 1875,79 as to the effect of the provisions in section 24 of the 1873 Act that: “In every civil cause or matter commenced in the High Court of Justice law and equity shall be administered by the said High Court. . . “ The above-specified provision was often put forward as having effected a fusion of law and equity when, more correctly speaking, the fusion was the administration of law and equity.
It appears therefore to be necessary only to add that what learned counsel has described as “incorporation” seems to be no more than a bringing together, a collocation, under one heading of the three principal sets of rules of law in force within the jurisdiction, which collocation, however, leaves the differences and distinctions between them completely unaffected.
It is often said that the preamble is the key to an Act of Parliament and section 2 of the Interpretation Act, 1960 (C.A.4.), lays it down that the “long title and preamble form part of an Act intended to assist in explaining the purport and object of the Act.”
