The Deputy Vice Chancellor of Cavendish University Uganda, Dr. Olive Sabiiti, who doubles as the Dean of the Faculty of Law, travelled to Gdańsk, Poland on 17th September, 2019 to attend two meetings which included; the 13th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS) and the 4th biennial Global Law Deans’ Forum.
The meetings were hosted by the University of Gdańsk, Poland from the 18th – 22nd September, 2019.
The International Association of Law Schools is a private, non-political, non-profit, volunteer, collaborative, learned society dedicated to serving the world wide legal education community. It is an association of more than 165 law schools and departments from over 58 countries representing more than 7,500 law faculty members. The Association’s primary mission is the improvement of legal education throughout the world. https://www.ialsnet.org/.
Cavendish University Uganda has been a member of the said Association since 2017 and it is listed on the membership web page at https://www.ialsnet.org/membership/members-2/.
The Annual Meeting is a special occasion when all of the legal community has the opportunity to get together to meet, engage and discuss. 106 Law Faculties from over 30 countries attended the 2019 Annual meeting which continued with the exploration of the essential elements of a legal education. This year’s theme was “The Role of Law and the Rule of Law: Teaching Significant Issues in the 21st Century.”
“During the meeting, we worked at developing a consensus as to what and how we teach, how that should be evaluated for all the11 doctrinal areas of law and how we can involve other stake holders, including the judiciary, in improving legal education for the 21st century.” Remarked Dr. Olive Sabiiti.
Dr. Olive is a member of the Contract Law doctrinal study group chaired by Enqian Yang- the Senior Judge, Civil Trial Section of Suzhou Intermediate Court, China. She actively participated in the development of the international template for contract law and found that Cavendish University Uganda ‘s syllabus had good scope.
The 2019 Global Law Deans’ Forum built on the work from the prior two years (2018-2019) of eight Regional Law Deans’ workshops. The Association has for the past two years engaged in an intense discussion with deans, faculty and education professionals, as well as research organisations, to continue defining the parameters of a global legal education which honours and is responsive to the unique context of each member institution. These workshops serve to distil and focus regional perspectives on legal education and help build a more common understanding of our obligations as law professors and scholars.
The theme for 2019 was ‘The Role of Law and the Rule of Law – Rethinking Legal Education’. “It is a broad agenda and is fundamental to our mission as teachers of the law. It is an opportunity for us to engage as a community,” Dr. Olive acknowledged.
The forum concentrated on four areas namely:
1) Setting and Implementing Standards
2) Teaching Challenging, Controversial and/or Sensitive Subject Matter
3) Administrative Challenges for Law School Leadership in a rapidly evolving educational dynamic
4) Town Meets Gown – the growing need for interaction between legal education with
government, business and technological development.
It brought together 86 leaders in legal education from over 29 countries to discuss with peers and to formulate new strategies to improve legal education globally.
Dr. Olive Sabiiti attested that she learnt new solutions and best practice strategies from reputable Law Schools & Professors that can be implemented at the Faculty of Law at Cavendish University Uganda.
Participants from Uganda included Justice Esther Kisakye of the Supreme Court; Justice Eva Luswata of the High Court; Dr. Sadat Semakula, Dean, Faculty of Law, Gulu University; Dr. Anthony Kakooza, Dean Emeritus Uganda Christian University; Dr. Roselyn Karugonjo, Dean, Faculty of Law, Uganda Christian University and Dr. Olive Sabiiti, the Deputy Vice Chancellor & Dean, Faculty of Law at Cavendish University Uganda.
The African regional meeting for 2020 will be hosted by Uganda Christian University while the global annual meeting will take place in Abuja, Nigeria.
