Uganda’s lawyers stand up for judicial integrity

Around the world, many courts and legal practices will soon close for a brief holiday and year-end recess. But not many will have as crucial an issue hanging over the holidays as the legal profession in Uganda. There, the year is ending with a dramatic plea from the Uganda Law Society to the Chief Justice, Alfonse Owiny-Dollo. Top of the list of problems on which the CJ has been asked to act in the new year are two issues: the Supreme Court’s extraordinarily lax approach to delivering judgments – just 10% were cleared in 2024 – and the fact that military courts are continuing to hear cases involving civilians, despite a Constitutional Court order finding that to do so is unconstitutional. The court martial issue has sparked other year-end pleas and even notification of formal legal protest action, as Carmel Rickard writes in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site.

A Matter of Justice