Monrovia, May 5 -- The Supreme Court of Liberia's absence from the Liberia National Bar Association's (LNBA) International Law Day program on May 3 has set off alarm bells across Liberia's legal community, exposing what now appears to be a widening institutional rift between the country's top court and its premier professional legal body.

By Victoria G. Wesseh, victoriag.wesseh@frontpageafricaonline.com

While the Court offered no official explanation for its boycott, legal observers widely believe it was a pointed response to LNBA President Cllr. Bornor M. Varmah's criticism of a recent Supreme Court ruling.

In particular, Varmah's challenge of the Court's intervention in a legislative leadership dispute - involving the reinstatement...