Preliminary Rules of the Uganda Constitutional Law Moot

Preliminary Rules of the 2014 Uganda Constitutional Law Moot are as follows:

1. Each University offering an LL.B. degree may enter one team consisting on two students in the moot.

2.  The two team members must be students in good standing at the University that they are representing.

3. Universities are free to use the moot problem to conduct their own inter-university moots to identify the team that will represent the university in the national round of the 2014 Uganda Constitutional Law Moot.

4. The two team members shall be designated by a faculty member of the University's school of law or law faculty who co-ordinates or supervises moot activity.  This designation should be made at least 48 hours prior to the competition.  Team designations shall be submitted to dbriandennison@gmail.com

5.  Each team member shall have up to 18 minutes to present their argument at each round of the moot for a maximum total of 36 minutes for initial submissions.  The Appellant team will be given 3 minutes for rebuttal.  The Respondent team will be given 3 minutes for surrebutal.  Surrebutal will be limited to responses to arguments proffered in rebuttal.

6. Team will be required to prepare "heads of argument" for both the Petitioner side and the Respondent side.   Heads of argument for each side shall not exceed fifteen pages in length, double space, 12 point type Times New Roman type.  Footnotes can be written in 10 point type and can be single spaced.

7.  The heads of argument should also include a title page identifying the team members and whether each of the two briefs is submitted on behalf of the Appellant or the Respondent.

8.  For an example of the heads of argument style of briefing please see the "Merits" section in the winning briefs from the 2012 African Human Rights moot that are available for download at http://www1.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/moot-documents.html

This is the Second Draft of the Preliminary Rules replacing the initial version.  These Rules remain subject to additional corrections and modification.  

2014 Uganda Constitutional Law Moot Problem

Here is the link to the 2014 Uganda Constitutional Law Moot Problem:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwrZvLBJBLhwTlJzOFl2eWJzUTA/edit?usp=sharing

and here is the text of the problem:

UGANDA INTER-UNIVERSITY

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW MOOT COURT PROBLEM

Get Ready Uganda and One Other v. the Attorney General

The following case was brought under Article 137 of the Uganda Constitution.

The lead Petitioner in the Case is “Get Ready, Here I Come! Uganda” (Hereinafter “Get Ready”).  Get Ready is a Ugandan corporation and a registered Non Governmental Organisation.  Get Ready is dedicated to the promotion of the health of unborn children.

The other petitioner is Nakato Joan as legal representative of Jangu Adam.  Adam is a 7 month-old fetus that Nakato Joan is carrying.  

Get Ready Uganda has chosen not to include any born human petitioners in this case.  Some argue that Get Ready is merely using this issue as a back door means of establishing the personhood of the unborn in Uganda.  Get Ready is largely funded by the American pro-life organization Focus on the Faith.  

Get Ready filed a petition seeking the provision of folic acid to all women of childbearing age in Uganda.  Adequate folic acid intake during the preconception period (which is the time right before and just after a woman becomes pregnant) helps protect against a number of congenital malformations, including neural tube defects.  Neural tube defects are severe abnormalities of the central nervous system that develop in babies during the first few weeks of pregnancy resulting in malformations of the spine, skull, and brain; the most common neural tube defects are spina bifida and anencephaly.  The risk of neural tube defects is significantly reduced when supplemental folic acid is consumed in addition to a healthy diet before conception and during the first month after conception.   

Uganda’s Ministry of Health decided to adopt a programme for the provision of folic acid to pregnant mothers and women seeking to become pregnant in 2007.  However, every year since 2007 the budgetary allocation for folic acid has been cut.  The only folic acid provided to pregnant mothers and women seeking to become pregnant since that time has been offered through donor funds or has been purchased by individuals.  The Ministry of Health said that it has had to make the decision to cut the folic acid programme each year due to a reduction in the funds it has received from the Central Government.  It reasons that it must cut costs associated with the purchase of medicines and medical equipment because it must use all allocated funds on staff and building maintenance in order to avoid staff layoffs and to ensure proper upkeep of existing facilities.

The Petitioners assert that all of the unborn in Uganda have the right to have their mothers provided with folic acid.  This is based on an alleged right to health.  They assert that the unborn have a heightened right to government health provision as they are not in the position to provide for themselves.

Get Ready is seeking a variety of forms of relief which include the requirement that folic acid supplements be added to all flour in Uganda, that folic acid tablets be provided to all women of childbearing age, that women of child bearing age be provided with a government sponsored supplement to defray the cost of folic acid tablets, that the Ministry of Health be forced to make other budget cuts that do not directly effect health to the same extent as cutting the folic acid programme that the Ministry of Health adopted in 2007, or any other form of relief that the court can order which would improve the availability and provision of folic acid to women of child bearing age.

The Constitutional Court heard the case.  They struck down the petition.  In a one sentence holding the Constitutional Court held that the petition was barred by the political question doctrine citing their recent decision in Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and Three Others v. Attorney General, Constitutional Petition No. 16 of 2011, UGCC, available at http://www.ulii.org/ug/judgment/constitutional-court/2012/4.

Get Ready filed a timely appeal with the Supreme Court of Uganda.  The Supreme Court has set the matter down for immediate oral argument along with the pending CEHURD case.   Counsel for Get Ready will argue the case for the Petitioners and the Office of the Attorney General will argue the case for the Respondent  

The Supreme Court has asked the petitioners to offer oral argument on the following issues:

1.  Are the petitioners proper parties to bring a petition under Article 137?

2.  Is there a right to health in Uganda?

3.  Is the right to health judicially enforceable?

4.  Do the unborn have a right to health in Uganda?

5.  Is the forced purchase and/or provision of folic acid a judicial remedy that the Court is empowered and authorised to grant?

Note this problem is subject to revision by the moot organizers.  This draft is dated 9 November 2014.

Announcing the 2014 Uganda Constitutional Law Moot

Uganda is home to a growing number of law schools and law students.  Presently these students have limited opportunities to compete in moot court competitions.  The Uganda Intra-University Constitutional Law Moot would add a much-needed annual moot in a key legal area of appellate practice in the Ugandan context.

National mooting opportunities are limited in Uganda.  The only annual moot with wide participation among Ugandan law schools is the International Humanitarian Law Moot conducted by the ICRC.  Other organizations such as ALIPU and UCLF have staged notional moots from time to time, but these moots are not broadly attended regularly occurring events.  Also, while there are a relatively large number of opportunities to compete in international moot competitions, these moots are often too expensive and time consuming for most Ugandan law schools to take part in.

In addition, none of the current inter-university mooting opportunities in Uganda focus on the Constitution.  This is the case despite the fact that constitutional law is arguably the most important field of law in the context of appellate legal work in Uganda.

In the hope of meeting the needs listed above we have decided to launch Uganda's National Constitutional Law Moot!

All of Uganda's law schools are welcome to enter a single team of two student competitors in the competition.  The full rules for the competition will be provided on a subsequent post on this blog.

We are releasing the 2014 moot problems so that the Universities with law schools and law faculties can stage their own internal competitions in order to identify a team to represent their University. Universities are also free to come up with some alternative means for naming their team, but it is our hope that most Universities will stage their own internal moots in the spirit of learning and competition.

We hope to stage the moot in February of 2014.  The exact date and the location of the internal moot will be posted soon.

The present moot organising committee for the moot includes representatives from Makerere's School of Law, Uganda Christian University's Faculty of Law and CEHURD.   We are looking forward to bringing in more partners to the process of planning, staging and conducting the moot.

We hope you will be interested in seeing the Uganda Constitutional Law Moot become a successful annual event on Uganda's legal education landscape.