SoL to Boost the Mooting Culture

The Management of the School of Law has pledged to support and strengthen the mooting activities in the school as a way of promoting practical learning of law.

This came up during a meeting where the students through the Mooting Club presented the awards earned during the Manfred Lochs Space Law Moot that was held from the 8th to the 10th of June 2017 at Sunnyside Hotel in Pretoria South Africa.

In his remarks, the Ag. Principal School of Law Dr. Christopher Mbazira commended the effort exhibited by the students in the moot where they became second runners up.

He said he personally appreciates the need to have a many students as possible involved in the moots adding that this is one of the practical ways of learning promoted under clinical legal education.

He commended the students for soliciting the required resources needed to facilitate them to the moot amidst resource constrains in the School of law. He however urged the students to always involve the management of the School of Law in the preparations for the moots as well as in raising resources noting that in the past some students have participated in such events without the knowledge of the management of the School of Law, yet claiming to represent Makerere University.

Dr. Mbazira who is also coordinator PILAC noted that he has always supported the moot activities citing the annual human rights moot courts sponsored by PILAC. He said the difference between Makerere University School of Law and other Universities that take part in the moots is that for Makerere, the intention is to enable students learn, while for others the emphasis is on winning.

He asked the leadership of the mooting society to come up with a mooting protocol explaining the processes through which internal and external moots are organized, for the management of the School of Law to adopt as well as enable the scheduling of the mooting activities in the School of Law activity calendar.

Dr. Zahara Nampewo the Ag. Director Human Rights and Peace Centre commended the resilience exhibited by the students who despite being second year students and not having studied space law became second runners up. She emphasized the need for the students to inform the management of the School of any intentions to take part in a given moot so that they can be assisted where possible as well as formalizing the participation

The students gave their experiences in participation in the moot that included resource constraints, inadequate time for preparations as well as laxity by some potential sponsors to deal with the students directly. Through the Vice President of the mooting society Aaron Joel Kaleeba the students  said it is their intention to have regular training sessions for moots to enable as many law students as possible to gain exposure in mooting.

The meeting was also attended by Dr. Daniel Ruhweza who is a member of the School of Law moot committee as well as the President Makerere Law Society and other members of the mooting society of the school of Law