From Rules to Virtues: Transforming Legal Ethics Education in Uganda

Author (s)

Richard Wemesa, Samson Maliisa, Keith Busingye, & Faustin Buteera

Abstract

Uganda’s legal profession suffers from pervasive unethical conduct despite the existence of the Advocates Act and the Advocates (Professional Conduct) Regulations. The Fourth National Integrity Report ranked the judiciary as the second most corrupt government institution, indicating that rule‑based frameworks alone are insufficient. This doctrinal study critically examines the historical evolution, philosophical foundations, and comparative models of legal ethics education in the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, and South Africa. It diagnoses Uganda’s current rule‑centric pedagogy, which lacks dedicated ethics courses, applied ethical theories, experiential learning, and regulatory mandates. Four hypotheses are developed linking rule‑centric instruction to poor ethical internalisation, applied ethics to moral reasoning, experiential pedagogies to professional identity, and regulatory mandates to professional conduct. Findings confirm that Uganda’s legal training neglects normative theories, clinical education, simulations, and reflective practices. The paper proposes a comprehensive reform agenda: mandatory standalone ethics courses, applied ethicist involvement, clinical legal education, case method, simulations, reflective writing, strengthened accreditation standards, a mandatory ethics examination for bar admission, and enforced continuing professional development in ethics. These evidence‑based recommendations aim to restore public trust in Uganda’s justice system. The study makes three original contributions: it provides the first systematic doctrinal analysis of legal ethics education in Uganda, operationalises habitus theory within legal ethics pedagogy, and introduces a ‘tripartite regulatory deficit’ framework applicable to other developing Commonwealth jurisdictions.

Key words: Legal ethics, legal education, Uganda, professional identity, applied ethics, doctrinal research.

Download PDF

Cite This Article:

Wemesa, R., Maliisa, S., Busingye, K., & Buteera, F. (2026). From Rules to Virtues: Transforming Legal Ethics Education in Uganda, Journal of Scientific Reports, 14(1), 174-188.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.58970/JSR.1211

About Author (s)

Richard Wemesa (Corresponding Author), Department of Management Sciences, King Ceasor University, Uganda; Department of Applied Business Administration, Cornerstone University Uganda;  Department of Economics, Powislanska Academy of Applied Sciences, Kwidzyn, Gdansk, Koscierzyna, Torun, Poland; Department of Business Administration, Unicaf University, Uganda. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3425-4268

Samson Maliisa, School of Law and management sciences, King Ceasor University, Kampala Uganda.

Keith Busingye, School of Law and management sciences, King Ceasor University, Kampala Uganda. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6661-1487

Faustin Buteera, Department of Theology and Christian Ministry, Cornerstone University, Uganda. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7010-4014

Download PDF

DOI: https://doi.org/10.58970/JSR.1211

Summarize this article with: