Departments

The department of the Academic Registrar is established under the current Standing Orders. It is mandated to coordinate and manage the following functions at LDC;

• Management of applications, admissions, registrations and examinations forall courses.
• Coordinating teaching and running of various courses.
• Coordinating students’ assessments.
• Organizing graduation functions.
• Handling processing and issuance of academic transcripts and certificates.
• Certifications of academic documents.
• Verifications of academic documents for former students.
• Custodian of key student records.

The department of finance is responsible for the management and control of Centre funds. It is divided into six sections, namely, budgeting and planning, salary, finance, management accounts, book-keeping and stores. The functions of the department include; revenue collection, payroll preparation, management of expenditure, management of stores, book-keeping and production of final accounts. Books of account are annually audited by the Auditor General pursuant to S.23 of the Law Development Centre Act, Cap 132.

Roles and Duties of Finance Department

• Manage all revenue and expenditure of the Centre
• Assist the Planning Unit in the preparation of the Centre Budget
• Prepare periodic Financial and Management Reports
• Prepare Statutory Financial Reports
• Source for funding for the Centre
• Facilitate the External Audit and coordinate responses to audit queries.

The Department of Law Reporting, Research and Law Reform is composed of 3 (three) sections to wit; Law Reporting, Research and Publications and Law Reform. Initially, there were two separate Departments i.e. Department of Law Reporting and Department of Research, Law Reform and Publications. In 2010, the Law Development Centre (LDC) undertook reforms in which the two Departments were combined inter alia because of their interrelated activities and it thus became: Department of Law Reporting, Research and Law Reform.

The mandate of the Department is derived from Section 3 of the Law Development Centre Act, Cap 132 and it includes;

1. Compiling, editing and publishing Law Reports for Uganda;
   Publishing periodicals, bulletins, digests or other written material concerned
   with legal and related matters;
2. Disseminating and promoting generally a better knowledge of the law;
3. Assisting any commissioner who may be appointed in the preparation and
   publication of a revised edition of the Laws of Uganda;
4. Assisting in the preparation of reprints of Acts of Parliament in accordance
   with any law for the time being in force;
5. Assisting the Law Reform Commission in the performance of its functions;
6. Undertaking research into any branch of the law;
7. Holding seminars and conferences on legal matters and problems;
8. and Collecting, compiling, analyzing and abstracting statistical information on legal and related matters.

The Department is guided by the following aims and objectives;

• Producing quality legal publications for students, legal practitioners and researchers
• Supporting related Government and non-government institutions in reforming and revising the Laws of Uganda.
• Undertaking research in key legal issues

Law Reporting

This Section deals with among others; publication of the Uganda Law Reports (ULR), High Court Bulletins (HCB), Justice Bench Books (JBB), Reprints of ULR and HCB, Reprints of Acts of Parliament and Subsidiary legislation, Name and subject matter index, Index of Laws of Uganda, Field Research Reports, Hand Book for Magistrates, Case transcripts, the Uganda Law Focus and other publications.

Research and Publications

This Section deals with among others; publication of Justice Bench Books, articles on thematic legal matters on contemporary legal issues within the country and the rest of the world, perusal, editing, commenting and making specific comments on journals submitted for publication and creating awareness to the relevant stakeholders of emerging jurisprudence in our courts of law. Currently, the Department is working hard to revive the Uganda Law Focus Journal to have annual publication on different legal issues within the East African region and the rest of the world.

Law Reform Section

This Section deals with among others; initiating and overseeing proposals for law reform; prepares advice on behalf of the Institution to Parliament or other bodies responsible for law reform; coordinates law reform activities with the Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC), First Parliamentary Counsel, and other organizations or stakeholders and carries out any other work assigned by the Department. Currently, the Department has worked on the proposed Bill to amend the LDC Act Cap 132; it is developing the Anti-Corruption strategy for the institution; it is updating and compiling (integrating) several Acts of parliament that were amended up to 2020 to include amendments in the mother or former Act; add the relevant Regulations, Byelaws and Legal notices and print it as one document and indexing the laws of Uganda.

The Human Resource function is one of the major support functions at LDC. Pursuant to the writing and adoption of LDC Standing Orders, its major mandate is to ensure that appropriate HR policies and procedures are in place to enable effective and efficient service delivery. The Section is headed by the Manager, Human Resource. It supports the delivery of all major HR functions including staff recruitment, appointments, deployment, confirmations in appointment, promotion and discipline and welfare of staff & students. It makes recommendations to the Appointments Sub-Committee in case of professional and senior administrative staff, and to the Human Resource Committee in case of other staff.

The Department of Human Resource and Administration is headed by the Head Human Resource and Administration assisted by the Administration Manager, Human Resource Manager and Human Resource Officers. It is responsible for general administration and management of the institution. The department makes recommendations for the recruitment, appointment, confirmation, promotion and discipline of staff to the Appointments Subcommittee in case of professional and senior administrative staff, and to the Human Resource Committee in case of other staff. The department is also responsible for the welfare of staff as well as students.

The department conducts a one year Post graduate Bar Course programme leading to the award of a Diploma in Legal Practice which is a pre-requisite for enrolment as an advocate and practicing law in Uganda. It also provides legal aid services to the indigent members of society, especially women and children in conflict with the law. The department is composed of full time and part-time professional staff and support staff.

The department of Law is one of the Teaching Departments at LDC. It organizes Diploma courses, in Law and Human Rights. It also organizes short courses such as Administrative Officers Law Course among others. It as well organizes Tailored Law Courses upon request from Government Agencies, Private sector and NGOs.

LDC law library exists to facilitate the Academic, Training, Law Reporting & Research functions of the Centre by providing relevant & timely legal information in both print and electronic format. The library is stocked with more than 15,000 volumes of books which include; law reports, bulletins, textbooks, periodicals, laws both local and foreign, and research papers.

The library is open to students from universities offering law as well as the legal fraternity including advocates, judges, magistrates, scholars/researchers and government officials.