Justice Emmanuel Nii Akwei Addo was born in Accra on 10th September 1943 to Mr. Edward Addoquaye Addo and Mrs Rose Finola Addo (nee Aryee) both of blessed memory. He was the youngest of his mother’s children but the fifth child paternally. His parents were both in the teaching profession. His father was renowned for his work as an Inspector of Schools and his mother, a head teacher who exuded great intellect and skill as she took many young people under her wings and imparted knowledge in catering and handicrafts on to them. He was tied to his mother’s apron strings and as part of his upbringing, he loved to kneel beside his mother to pray even at a very tender age. It is no surprise that he was raised with strong Christian values which stuck with him throughout his life. He loved the Lord and kneeling to pray became second nature to him.

He started his elementary education at Methodist Primary School, Koforidua and Government Boys Middle School, Kumasi from 1949 to 1957. His father died during the first term of his first year in secondary school. His Uncle Emmanuel Saka Addo alias ‘small god’, like a bulwark, adopted him and raised him as his own. In the face of adversity and as devastating as the loss of his father was for him at the time, with a can-do attitude, young Emmanuel was determined to make the best out of life. He proceeded to Accra Academy to pursue his secondary education from 1958 to 1962 and obtained his GCE Ordinary Level Certificate. At Accra Academy, Latin was his forte. He excelled at it with great flair, so much so that he led Accra Academy to third place victory at a national Latin competition. That was a moment in time he recounted with brio.

He then did his sixth form course at Mfantsipim School from 1962 to 1964 and obtained the GCE Advance Level certificate. Subsequently, after his A Levels, he taught English Language and Literature briefly, as a junior member of staff at Accra High School in order to raise money towards his University education as well as send some funds back home to his mother for her upkeep.

In 1965, he entered the University of Ghana Law School, Legon to pursue a law degree. At Legon, his mates affectionately nicked named him CJ or Supreme connoting Chief Justice because of his flair for Law as a subject. He graduated with LL.B (Hons) in 1968. Thereafter, Emmanuel applied to do his professional Course in Law and was called to the Ghana Bar to practice as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Superior Court of Judicature, Ghana in 1969.

Emmanuel had a short stint as a private legal practitioner and Junior Partner with Messrs Opoku Acheampong & Co, a firm of solicitors and advocates, from October 1969 to May 1970. While in private practice, he worked his ablest best and following the cab-rank rule, he accepted all manner of clients because he thought that he could advocate for them based upon an honest application of the law.

In June 1970, he moved on to join the Attorney General’s Office, starting out as an Assistant State Attorney, working in various sections of the Department.

Emmanuel served in Ho in the Volta Region for seven years (October 1970 – August 1977). Before long, his legal prowess and capabilities were brought to light and he was put in charge of the Attorney General’s Office in Ho (1973 – 1977) with the rank of Senior State Attorney. While working at the Attorney-General’s department in Ho, he met Pamela Nyuietor Tay who became his wife. They got married on 5th April in 1975 in Ho.

During the period in which he served in the Volta Region, he was appointed a member of the Border Demarcation Commission (as part of Ghana’s delegation) set up by the Governments of the Republic of Ghana and the Republic of Togo to settle the border disputes at the South-Eastern Frontier of Ghana, in 1974. Subsequently, in 1977 he was admitted into the prestigious University of Cambridge, Emmanuel College and was granted leave of absence to pursue an advanced degree in Public International Law.

At the University of Cambridge, he was affectionately known as ‘Ee Aye Addio’ (signifying his initials) and was considered a charming man. He was a loyal member of Emmanuel College’s International Law Club and graduated in 1978 with an LL.M degree – a Master’s degree in law.

On his return to Ghana, he served as the Regional Representative of the Attorney General’s Department in Tamale in the Northern Region for ten years (1979 to 1989). In 1981 while in the North, he appeared as Counsel on the Commission of Inquiry into the Civil Disturbance between the Nanumba and Konkomba Tribes of the Northern Region. With the rank of Principal State Attorney, among many other notable feats, in 1986, he led a team of five attorneys to the Court of Appeal to argue the test case of the Poaching of Elephants in the Mole National Park and succeeded by the force of legal arguments in letting the Appeal Court abandon an earlier contrary decision.

He was a member of the Reconciliation Committee on the Yendi Skin Affairs set up in 1987 by the then PNDC government to implement the Supreme Court judgement on the Yendi Skin Dispute.

Indeed, with his trademark of unstoppable energy, he managed to combine his work in Tamale as a practitioner with parallel work in academia as a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana, Legon, where he taught the LL.M class of 1979 on the subjects of Law of International Institutions and the Law of the Sea.

In June 1989, he moved to Accra and was promoted to Chief State Attorney and whist still at the Attorney General’s Office, he was seconded to the Foreign Ministry of Ghana as Director of the Legal and Consular Bureau and worked as a Legal Advisor to the Ministry. During his nine year tenure at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emmanuel served with distinction as Legal Advisor to the Foreign Ministry of Ghana from 1989 to 1998. International Laws pertaining to Ghana were in his immediate care and he humbly helped in his own small way to shape Ghana’s foreign policy. From this position he served on the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the General Assembly of the UN and participated in the Colloquium on Progressive Development and Codification of International Law. For six years, 1990 -1996, he was a member of the National Group of Ghana – the coveted group of jurists and diplomats tasked with nominating candidates for appointment to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

With his expertise in International Law as well as wide negotiating experience, he led delegations from Ghana to key meeting sessions by a group of experts of the Preparatory Commission for the International Seabed Authority and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. These sessions were particularly instrumental in establishing a body that organises, regulates and controls all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction – an area underlying most of the world’s oceans.

Invited by the Netherlands Government in 1994 as one of ten experts worldwide, he participated in the Review and Drafting of certain provisions of the 1994 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed conflict, in the light of the experience in former Yugoslavia and the Iraq/Kuwait conflict.

In 1995, as an International Law expert from Ghana, he had likewise participated in the drafting of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty and the rules regarding the Establishment of the African Charter of an African Court of Human and People’s Rights, held in Cape Town, South Africa

He contributed a great deal towards global justice particularly through his participation in the Drafting Committee for the drafting of the Rome Statute - the International Criminal Court statute - the treaty that established the International Criminal Court in 1998. Consequently, on returning to Ghana, he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee to justify the ratification of the Rome Statute of which Ghana is party to today.

He made substantial legal inputs into Ghana’s Constitutional Amendment on Dual Nationality, the Passports and Travel Documents Bill.

By dint of hard work, Emmanuel Akwei Addo climbed the ladder at the Attorney General’s Chambers to become the Solicitor General of Ghana in 1998. His position as Solicitor-General which is the topmost career law officer in the Legal Service of Ghana, afforded him the opportunity to run the Attorney-General’s department in the absence of the Attorney-General and the Deputy Attorney-General. He appeared as Counsel not only before national courts, but also before numerous international courts. He led an all Ghanaian team of lawyers to Amsterdam, Netherlands to win an International Arbitration involving Ghana and a Danish Company. The first of its kind by a Ghanaian team - a remarkable feat for the times.

Emmanuel had his own style of advocacy. Whether as a defendant in private practice or as a prosecutor at the Attorney-General’s office, he had a knack of quickly getting to the heart of a case and homing in on the key issues. He was not interested in "hand-waving or flamboyance". His approach was focused on substance. Even in cases in which Emmanuel was not on the winning side, it was not for the lack of industry and diligence.

During his employment in the Attorney General’s Office, he served in various sections of the department and undertook various assignments such as the writing of legal opinions on all aspects of law including International Law. He was involved in negotiations on International transactions, Court appearances and participated in arbitrations representing the Republic.

He worked indefatigably to get the International Legal Division of the Attorney-General’s Department set up to cater for International Law matters such as International Agreements, International Arbitration, International and Transnational Litigation that Ghana is involved in. As Director of the International Legal Division, Emmanuel played an important role in resolving certain key cases such as the Cabiri Case, the Kolon case, the Trafalcon case and the Kamphil case, inter alia. So his efforts in getting the International Legal Division established were not in vain. It has been running since 2nd January 1995. A legacy that still serves a useful purpose for Ghana today.

He was elected twice to become a member of the highly esteemed International Law Commission of the United Nations thus serving for ten years from (1996 to 2006) -the first Ghanaian to hold such a position.

The International Law Commission (ILC) is the principal organ of the UN tasked with progressive development of International Law and its codification. He together with a group of other jurists were instrumental in the drafting of several key treaties. One of such Treaties was the treaty on State Responsibility. Therefore, Emmanuel’s appointment to the ILC in itself was a source of pride for the Nation of Ghana, that one of her sons found himself working side by side other distinguished International lawyers to undertake such an important assignment for the world.

As a member of the ILC he distinguished himself in the work of the Commission as an active member. He was elected as 2nd Vice-Chairman of the commission at the 51st Session in 1999.

He worked assiduously to bear Ghana’s name aloft on the International plane and his re-election to the International Law Commission of the UN testifies to this.

In June 2004 he was appointed by the United Nations as an Independent Expert for Human Rights for Sudan. A position which took him to Sudan to assess the human rights situation in Darfur and the entire country. In presentation of his report on the situation in Sudan, he did not mince words in telling the General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural committee (The third committee) that there had been numerous crimes committed in the region and that crimes against humanity had been committed. This report contributed to persuade the UN to make an intervention in Sudan in order to prevent an escalation of the already dire situation in the country.

With such an impeccable record of achievements and experience, it was no surprise Emmanuel caught the eye of the Lord Chief Justice who invited him to serve on the bench at the Court of Appeal level and was sworn in on 18th June 2002 as such. He served with integrity as a Judge for five years on the bench. Emmanuel elected to take an early retirement as from 30th March 2007.

He served his country with distinction, dedication and integrity, having risen from the ranks to the topmost legal career officer of the Land - the Solicitor-General of Ghana and head of the legal service before being appointed to the Bench.

After his retirement, in March, 2007, Justice Addo was nominated by the late Ex-President of the Republic of Ghana, John Evans Atta-Mills to serve as Chairman of the Inter Ministerial Review Committee on the Vodafone Transaction to re-examine the Sale and Purchase Agreement concluded between Ghana and Vodafone International Holdings BV.

In the course of his work Emmanuel attended training courses, notable amongst which were a seminar in Commercial Financing for Development in Rome, Italy from November to December 1986; seminar in Foreign Investment Negotiation in Washington DC from 1st March 1989 to 30th March 1989. Emmanuel was also a member of the Ghana Bar Association, the International Bar Association; member of the American Association of International Law; member of the Board of Directors of the Ghana Milled Rice Production Company, Tamale, Northern Region – June 1979; Member, Board of Directors of the Ghana Arbitration Centre.

Emmanuel was an eminent jurist well-versed in various subjects of International Law. He had been in the Legal Service of Ghana for over 40 years and had a wealth of experience as an International Lawyer of great distinction.

He was particularly conscious of and grateful for his God-given gift of intelligence, coupled with his enormous determination and hard work, which had brought him to the position of pre-eminence that he rightly occupied in the glittering constellation of renowned international lawyers. He was proud of having been recognised in Crestwall Limited’s 2007 publication of “Who is who in International Law” as a person who had achieved standing in the International Law field.

In light of his upbringing, one can understand the dichotomy sometimes discerned in the personality he presented to the world: on the one hand, he was legendary in his reputation as a director or supervisor who demanded adherence to rigorous standards and hard work from his disciples; on the other hand, he was known to be a caring man sensitive to the needs of others, ever ready to mentor and encourage others to progress in their endeavours.

Lawyers who worked with or against him respected his integrity and independence, recognising that his forceful and distinct personality was accompanied by warmth and a sharp sense of humour.

Emmanuel always said, “There is nothing more fulfilling than to serve your country and fellow citizens and do it well”. In serving his country Ghana, his highest principle was one of patriotism and foremost commitment to excellence.

He used the experience he had gathered over the years and the expertise at his disposal as a national resource and he served the Nation of Ghana with distinction and integrity. He regarded Government service as a noble calling and a public trust. For him there was no greater honour than to serve free men and women; no greater privilege than to labour in Government beneath the Coat of Arms of Ghana (whose motto is Freedom and Justice) and the flag of Ghana.

He was a strong Christian who made time to read the Word of God. He served the Lord as a lay preacher at Methodist Churches in the Volta Region and in the Northern Region of Ghana.

When he was not working, he spent time with his family. It is noteworthy to say here that Emmanuel and Pamela were married for 41 years and they had three lovely children, Adotey, Adoley and Adorkor. He was a loving and responsible husband and father. He was very caring and thoughtful and a great provider. Emmanuel was always there to support his family, not just his nucleus family but he looked out for his extended family as well.

Emmanuel enjoyed sightseeing. He was really a gadgets man. In his free time he loved to shop for and discover newly launched gadgets. He enjoyed listening to music of various genres from Gospel music, Soca, Raggae, Calypso music, highlife and Hip-life music, to classical compositions.

Emmanuel was an intellectual giant. He was renowned as a man of integrity and excellence. He lived a full and contributing life and made his mark wherever he went. He always acknowledged that God was the One who enabled him to accomplish all of his successes and feats.

He passed away at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on Tuesday 7th February, 2017.

Emmanuel’s death is a true loss for his family, for Ghana and for International law. Nevertheless, he will remain in our memory as a guiding star in our endeavours for the promotion of the rule of law in Ghana and in the International community. He will be greatly missed.