Legal Foundations of Legislative Review

The governance of mineral resources in Africa continues to pose complex constitutional and policy challenges. Across the continent, executive dominance in resource contracting has often resulted in opacity, weakened accountability, and limited public participation. Ghana’s 1992 Constitution establishes a unique legal safeguard: the requirement of parliamentary ratification for all agreements relating to the exploitation of natural resources. This paper adopts a doctrinal approach to analyse the legal and institutional significance of parliamentary ratification as a mechanism of democratic oversight in the governance of mining contracts. Anchored in the Ghanaian constitutional and statutory framework, and drawing comparative insights from Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the study argues that legislative scrutiny enhances accountability, aligns resource governance with constitutional principles, and mitigates the risks of executive overreach. Nonetheless, weaknesses in legislative capacity, procedural clarity, and political independence continue to undermine the transformative potential of ratification. The paper concludes by proposing legal and institutional reforms to strengthen parliamentary oversight and promote a more transparent, accountable, and equitable extractive regime across Africa

Constitution · Corporate governance · Democracy · Legislature · Politics · Ratification · Scrutiny · Statutory law · Environmental law and policy · Mining and Resource Management · Natural Resources and Economic Development