Fordham-Ghana Program Courses

May 23-June 6, 2026 (Seminar)

Democratic Ownership in Ghana and the United States:  Comparative Law and Practice     

Program Overview: 

This program explores democratic ownership in both Ghana and the United States through a pair of interconnected comparative law courses. Together, the courses examine how colonial and capitalist legacies have influenced labor, property, and enterprise, and how communities in both nations have developed collective models of governance and production in response. Students will engage with historical and contemporary legal frameworks governing land, labor, and business to understand how each country structures access to economic opportunity and community control.

Through site visits, discussion, and comparative analysis, students will investigate how Ghana’s traditions of libertarianism and community-based governance, alongside U.S. experiments in cooperative ownership and solidarity economy practices, reveal both challenges and possibilities for building equitable and democratic systems of economic life. 

Students will enroll in one of two concurrent courses: Land, Labor & the Environment or Entrepreneurial Law & the Solidarity Economy which run simultaneously and share select joint sessions, guest speakers, and field experiences.

Course Title 1:
Land, Labor & the Environment

Course Description:
Most land in Ghana is held communally. Most land in the United States is held privately. Both systems present benefits and challenges. This course examines how law structures the ownership and control of land and labor in Ghana and the United States and to whose benefit. Students will analyze historical and contemporary property and labor regimes and explore how these systems reproduce and resist inequality. Drawing on case studies of collective landholding, worker organizing, and cooperative governance, the course situates contemporary debates about ownership within broader histories of  colonialism, chattel slavery, and self-determination.

Course Title 2:
Entrepreneurial Law & the Solidarity Economy

Course Description:
This course explores how business and transactional law shape democratic enterprise and solidarity economy practices in Ghana and the United States. Students examine how entity choice, tax, and employment frameworks can either constrain or enable cooperative and community-based models of entrepreneurship. Through comparative analysis of Ghanaian and U.S. cooperative ecosystems, students consider how law can support equitable, sustainable, and participatory economic development.

Legal Experiences 
Students will visit Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Department of Co-operatives, and Slave Dungeons in Cape Coast.

Cultural Experiences 
The course will include various cultural experiences to deepen the student's knowledge such as an Accra City Tour, Day and Night Market Tours, Slave River, a Cocoa Farm, Kakum National Park and an overnight stay in the town of Elmina.