Justice Srem-Sai

Dr. Justice Srem-Sai is a Ghanaian lawyer, legal academic and public official who serves as Deputy Attorney-General and Deputy Minister for Justice in the government of President John Dramani Mahama. One of the more academically distinguished appointees in the 2025 administration, he holds law degrees from four universities across three continents and has built a reputation as a constitutional and human rights scholar whose courtroom work has produced at least one landmark ruling in Ghanaian legal history.

Education

Srem-Sai was called to the Ghana Bar in 2011 after completing a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Ghana, where he also holds a Bachelor's degree in Management. He subsequently pursued advanced legal training abroad, earning two Master of Laws degrees: one from Cardiff University in Wales and one from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, among the most selective law schools in the world. He completed a PhD at the University of Leeds in England, a research qualification that anchors the academic dimension of his career.

Academic and professional career

Srem-Sai has lectured at the GIMPA Law School and serves as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Human Rights Law and Criminal Law. His academic work has been complemented by professional roles that span corporate law and public service: he worked as Legal and Regulatory Affairs Manager at SABMiller Ghana and served as Counsel to Ghana's Constitution Review Commission. He has also been an Executive Fellow at the Institute of Law and Public Policy Advocacy.

Landmark constitutional case

His most consequential piece of courtroom advocacy came in the case of Appiagyei-Atua v The Attorney-General of Ghana, in which he successfully argued for the striking out of Ghana's Covid-19 Restriction Act as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court's ruling represented the first time in Ghana's history that the court had struck out an entire Act of Parliament as unconstitutional, a precedent of significant weight in the country's constitutional jurisprudence and a result that demonstrated his capacity to mount arguments of the highest legal complexity before the country's apex court.

Appointment and role

President Mahama nominated him as Deputy Attorney-General in early 2025 and he was confirmed in March of that year. The appointment placed a scholar with a track record of challenging the executive branch in court in a position of responsibility within the executive's own legal arm, a combination that reflects both the calibre of his qualifications and the confidence the administration placed in his judgement.

Political Legacy

Justice Srem-Sai represents a strand of Ghanaian public life in which rigorous legal scholarship and practical courtroom advocacy combine in a single career. His constitutional landmark and his academic output position him as one of the more intellectually substantial figures in Ghana's legal and political landscape.

Recent cases

In 2026 Srem-Sai led the state's opposition to bail for Chairman Wontumi, the former NPP Ashanti chairman jailed for 20 years in July over illegal mining. At the High Court on 15 October 2026 he argued that Wontumi had shown no exceptional circumstances and was a flight risk; the court fixed 4 November for its ruling. He also spoke publicly on the arrest warrant EOCO obtained in September 2026 against Manhyia South MP Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah.