Property rights of Ghanaian women in informal conjugal unions

Abstract

Ghana has a pluralistic legal system which means that the country has customary law and statutory law applying to various legal issues like devolution of property and distribution of assets upon divorce. Indeed, customary law positions on these matters have been greatly impacted by statute that has made inroads into the discriminatory customary law rules that disproportionately affect women in these matters. This review paper looks at the property rights of women in informal conjugal unions also known, in Ghana, as concubinage relationships. A review of the law and court cases show that the status of a woman in Ghana, as a wife or concubine, determine her property rights upon dissolution of a relationship. Recent Supreme Court cases also reveal that there have been strides toward ending discrimination in property rights of married women but none in relation to women living in informal conjugal unions. Women in informal conjugal unions therefore continue to suffer discrimination in relation to right to property acquired during such unions.