Procedures
English-derived procedure with mandatory mediation since 2013
The Civil Procedure Act and Rules govern litigation. Court-annexed mediation has been mandatory in the commercial and civil divisions since the 2013 Judicature (Mediation) Rules, and the Judicature Act sets the appellate structure.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Magistrates' courts, the High Court and its divisions, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court; the EACJ for Treaty questions.
- Deadline — Mediation: 60 days from referral under the 2013 Rules
- Deadline — Appeal to the Court of Appeal: 60 days from the decree
- Deadline — Limitation: six years for contract, three years for tort
Governing law
- Civil Procedure Act (Cap 71) and the Civil Procedure Rules
- Judicature (Mediation) Rules, 2013
- Limitation ActCap 80
In practice
Mandatory court-annexed mediation is Uganda's principal procedural innovation: every case in the affected divisions must go to mediation before trial, with a 60-day window, which has measurably reduced the commercial backlog. It sits alongside a chronically congested trial docket that the reform was designed to relieve.