As the year long celebrations carry-on, Makerere University continues to shine a light on the tremendous achievements the institution has had in the 100-year journey.
June 1 marks the birth of the Law structure at Makerere University and the historians at the hill had a thread of events to share regarding the matter as quoted beneath;
On 1st June 1968, the Department of Law was established. Prior to its establishment, pupils were selected by the Attorney General and trained in his Chambers in London who would then qualify as barristers-at-law.
The Government of Uganda did not think of introducing a course for the degree of LL.B of the University of London as had already been done for some other disciplines at Makerere.
The first Ugandan to qualify as a legal practitioner, Apollo Kironde, was called to Gray’s Inn in London and then to the Uganda bar on April 13, 1953.
In 1961, a Law School was set up at Entebbe for the purpose of training magistrates of the local courts who were not professionally qualified. In 1963, courses for Part of the English Bar exam were started in Entebbe and those who passed went to London for finals.
A few years later, Government of Uganda proposed to transfer the School to Kampala where it might be attached to Makerere University College and thus enable students to mingle with fellow scholars and with members of the judiciary and the Bar.
As such, a Department of Law in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Makerere University College was established in June 1968. In July 1970, the Department of law became a Faculty.
In July 1968 the Law Development Centre (LDC) was established as a separate institution, to take over, inter alia, the functions of the Law School at Entebbe, which ceased to exist.
Prof Joseph Kakooza, who had just returned the previous year as the first Ugandan to attend Harvard Law School was the first Head of Department and later the first Dean of Law when the Department became the School of Law on 1st July 1970.
Upon establishment, the first graduating class of 1968-1971 was made up of only 17 male students and 6 women. The Makerere School of Law opened with only 6 teachers. Today it boasts of 30 staff, comprising 24 men and 8 women.
Today Makerere Law School is divided into four departments namely; Law & Jurisprudence, Commercial Law, Public and Comparative Law and the Human Rights & Peace Centre (HURIPEC).
As Makerere School of Law marks 54 years of excellence, it is currently constructing a new building where the Education Minister, Hon. Janet Museveni recently laid a foundation stone. The new building is set to increase office and lecture room space at the School of Law.
