THE ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURTS IN COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

1
THE ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURTS IN COMMERCIAL
DEVELOPMENT

• A CASE STUDY FROM UGANDA
• BY JUSTICE GEOFFREY KIRYABWIRE

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INTRODUCTION

• Over last decade more common law jurisdictions
  have set up commercial courts
• Traditionally East Africa had 2 divisions of the
  High Court
• Criminal division
• Civil division

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INTRODUCTION

• 3. Concept of commercial court is not new
• commercial list in Queens Bench in February 1895
• Judge dedicated to hearing commercial cases
• Still part of the High Court and not separate

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RECENT EXAMPLES

• Republic of Ireland 12th Jan 2004
• Ghana 4th March 2005
• South Africa (commercial crimes court Pretoria
  1999)
• Lesotho
• Non Common Law countries
• Peru
• Morocco
• Republic of Serbia

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Common characteristics

• Specialisation
• Case management system
• Pre-trial procedures
• Case tracking
• ICT
• Clearly the driving force behind the
  creation of Commercial Courts is the desire to
  facilitate the resolution of business/commercial
  disputes in a quick, efficient and effective
  manner that ensures economic growth.

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HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN UGANDA

1. 1995 Justice Platt Commission of inquiry on
   delays in The Judicial system.
2. Constitutional Commercial court (practice)
   Direction 1996 Legal Notice 5 of 1996

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HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN UGANDA

• Paragraph 2 of the Legal Notice states
• it has been decided to establish, a Commercial
  Court capable of delivering to the commercial
  community an efficient, expeditious and
  cost-effective mode of adjudicating disputes that
  affect directly and significantly the economic,
  commercial and financial life in Uganda

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• Creation of an efficient, expeditious and cost
  effective mechanism of dispute resolution
• a). The Proactive Judge
• Para 5 (2)
• The procedure in and progress of a
  commercial action shall be under the direct
  control of the commercial Judge who will, to the
  extent possible, be pro active

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• b). Rigorous case management/scheduling
• Order 10B Civil Procedure rules
• Must take into account the use of ADR
• c). Creation of a multi door court house
• In house mediation Registrar
• Mediation pilot project - CADER

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• d). Commercial court users
  committee (CCUC)
• e). Improvement of court room technology
• f). Construction of a purpose built court house
• g). Computerised case administration system
  (CCAS)
• h). Commercial court law reports

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• Results of the follow up survey show
• i) A 64 increase in registered cases
• ii) A 60 increase in court efficiency (disposal
  rate)
• iii) An average case adjournment of
  4.93.
• iv) A drop in the corruption perception
  from 27 to 26. This is a relatively low
  perception with no actual reported case of
  corruption.

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• Results of the follow up survey show
• Best practices have been instituted at the
  Commercial Court. Cases are handled
  expeditiously and in a business sensitive manner
  which has yielded high levels of satisfaction
  amongst the business community.

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• Comments by The Uganda Investment Authority
• The operations of the Commercial Court have
  had a positive effect on commerce and promotion
  of business and investment prospects, and have
  made our work of marketing Uganda as an
  investment destination easier Uganda Investment
  Authority commends the reforms of the Commercial
  Court

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ROLE OF COMMERCIAL COURT IN DEVELOPMENT

• Comments by the International Finance
  Corporation (IFC)
• In Tanzania and Uganda, Judicial dispute
  resolution has been streamlined recently and is
  now more efficient than in many industrialized
  countries

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CONCLUSION

• The role of the commercial courts in
  commercial development, from the Ugandan
  perspective, is to deliver to the commercial
  community an efficient, expeditious and cost
  effective mode of adjudicating disputes that
  directly affect the economic, commercial and
  financial sector in Uganda.
• The commercial court is constantly trying
  to be innovative and to adopt best practices to
  ensure that its objective and role is fulfilled
  hence contributing to investor confidence, in
  promoting sound business practices and the
  resultant economic growth.

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END

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