The Clinical Legal Education Programme
Through its Clinical Legal Education Programme (CLE), the School of Law has engaged its students in projects that benefit the wider community. Uganda Christian University Clinical Legal Education Programme started in May of 2009. The Programme is open to third year law students in their last semester, and the second sequence is available as an optional subject for fourth year law students in the first semester of that academic year. It provides law students with unique opportunities to engage in practical action learning. It utilizes partnerships with national and international organizations to create and facilitate service opportunities. The Programme enables students to perform the functions of an advocate in a manner consistent with Christian principles and mission. Clinical service activities include school sensitization; general community sensitizations; community justice leader training workshops through the “Justice River Uganda” initiative; partner activities with International Justice Mission (IJM), partner activities with Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF); and partner activities with Land Equity Movement Uganda (LEMU). Below are some of these activities explained in great detail. The Justice River Uganda Initiative is founded in the belief that community sensitization efforts make the broadest impact on civil society when they are directed at community leaders who can use their training with the broader community. The initiative offers community leaders short training modules within a multi-day workshop format. Justice River training modules cover practical topics including: local council courts, will writing and laws of succession, land law, and alternative dispute resolution.
The CLE Program partners with JM, a Christian-based human rights organization that takes on legal causes grounded in Biblical calls for justice. IJM’s Uganda Field Office at Ntinda focuses its legal efforts on combatting the scourge of property grabbing that affects widows and orphans in Mukono District and other parts of the country. IJM has trained law students in assisting with will writing clinics, and client intake interviews. UCU law students also assisted IJM with a structural change effort that sought to introduce a new organized approach to file management within the Mukono Magistrate Court.
UCLF is an association of Christian lawyers dedicated to Christian fellowship and fostering Christian integrity among Christian members of the Bar. One of the key activities of UCLF in Uganda is the representation of indigent inmates in the Uganda Prison System. UCU law students assist UCLF with the representation of both adult and juveniles, all indigent defendants by conducting client interviews, preparing client files and conducting factual investigation, legal research and mediation.
LEMU has been a clinical partner of UCU for several years. The School’s project work with LMU consists of assisting LEMU with the mediation of land disputes in Northern and Eastern Uganda.