“The panel system at the Supreme Court means that all the Justices of the Supreme Court do not sit on all cases argued before and decided by the Supreme Court. On each occasion the Chief Justice selects Justices of the Court who should decide the case. Perhaps this practice pre-dates the 1992 Constitution because it is also the practice adopted in the Court of Appeal. In many foreign jurisdictions this system is also applied in the intermediate appellate courts as in the Supreme Court. The system in Ghana typically empowers the Chief Justice to select, or as is usually expressed, “empanel” a Court out of the membership of the Supreme Court. Usually the Supreme Court panel consists of five Justices of the Court who are empanelled to sit on a case.”
