I am delighted to present to you the Makerere University School of Law 2023 Annual report. The report highlights the major activities undertaken and the major outputs in light of our core mandate of teaching, research and community outreach. It also highlights the challenges the School is facing and future plans.

With respect to teaching and learning, we successfully implemented all the scheduled activities including teaching, examinations, orientation for new freshers, field attachment, graduate admission exams and graduation. At the 73rd graduation ceremony of Makerere University, the School presented a total of 249 graduands of which 23 were awarded Master of Laws degrees and 226 awarded Bachelor of Laws degrees. To make our graduate programmes more relevant and competitive, we revised the Master of Laws programme and the Doctor of Laws programme. Additional to these revised programmes, in the course of next year, we expect to launch two new specialized Master of Laws degree programmes which are currently before the National Council for Higher Education for accreditation.

Students’ participation in moot court competitions is one of the major methodologies we employ in teaching our learners. Besides the learning, participation in moot competitions gives our learners exposure and provides them great opportunities for net-working. I am happy to report that in 2023, our students excelled in all the national and international moot court competitions they participated in. They won the Phillip Jessup International Moot Court Competitions national rounds and were supposed to represent Uganda at the international rounds but failed to secure visas in time. Our students also won the inaugural Gender and the Law moot competition. We emerged first runners-up in the Great Lakes International Humanitarian Law moot court competitions.

In the area of research, our faculty undertook a number of research projects and published many scholarly journal articles, books and reports on different subjects. I congratulate them for these research out puts. Among our major research outputs for 2023 is the edited book volume on Militarization and Development in Uganda. This publication unravels how militarization is taking place in the different sectors, the implications, and the hard choices Uganda has to make with respect to governance, human rights and economic development.

With respect to community outreach, our faculty and students participated in a number of initiatives and activities that were undertaken by our different units in particular, the Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC), the Refugee Law Project (RLP) and the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC). Among these include: training of University staff and other stakeholders on refugee rights and duties; training of police officers on disability rights and the law; legal aid camp for students and staff of Makerere University; participation in the Uganda Law Society (ULS) probono day; and conducting the Administrative Law short course in various parts of the country. In addition to providing learning opportunities to students who participate in them, our community outreach activities are very important for making our School more relevant in terms of empowering the local communities and addressing some of their legal-related challenges and needs.

I thank the Government of Uganda, Makerere University Council, Makerere University Top Administration and all our partners and well-wishers for your support that enabled us to implement numerous activities and achieve the highlighted outputs. I also thank colleagues in the administration at our School, staff and students for participating in the different activities.

As We Build for the Future

Ronald Naluwairo, PhD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR & PRINCIPAL