Every so often, a piece of writing from within the Judiciary reminds us that the law is not learned from statutes alone. This week’s Bench Note, authored by Hon. Justice Richard Wejuli Wabwire, Judge of the High Court of Uganda (International Crimes Division) and Deputy Principal Judge of the East African Court of Justice, is one such piece.
Titled “What the Robe Does Not Teach,” the note reads less like a lecture and more like a memoir. It is an honest account of the rooms, mentors, and moments that formed a judicial officer, long before and long after he put on the Robe.
From the Boardroom to the Bench
His Lordship’s path to judicial office was anything but conventional. It began not in law school corridors but in the fast paced world of corporate leadership. An MBA at Strathclyde University. A stint in private legal practice. Years navigating boardrooms at some of Uganda’s most prominent corporates, including British American Tobacco, Coca Cola, East African Breweries, and the National Social Security Fund. It was there, he writes, that he first learned how institutions actually decide, a lesson that would prove different, and harder won, once he reached a courtroom.
A Humbling Thirty Minutes
One of the note’s most striking passages recalls a Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court sitting before then Deputy Chief Justice Seth Manyindo, where a young advocate’s constitutional petition unraveled in under thirty minutes. It was, by his own account, the moment advocacy stopped being an art and became a discipline. In hindsight, it was also the moment his journey toward the Bench quietly began.
The Unwritten Rules
Much of the note is devoted to the lessons no induction manual teaches. The court clerk who mapped out an entire chambers’ worth of files on day one. The discipline of reading the record before sitting. The difference between sounding briefed and being briefed. And the hard truth that a courtroom, unlike a boardroom, easily exposes and punishes a judge who has not done the work.
Independence, Humanity, and the Discipline of Staying
Drawing on experiences across the Commercial Division, the International Crimes Division, and the East African Court of Justice, His Lordship reflects on judicial independence not as stubbornness but as the courage to remain seated when the law does not require departure. He also speaks to the importance of protecting one’s independence and one’s humanity together, in the same fist.
Why This Note Matters
What emerges is a rare, unguarded reflection on judicial formation. It speaks candidly about mentorship, fear, preparation, and the quiet debts owed to clerks, colleagues, and cohorts. It is a reminder that behind every judgment is a judicial officer still learning, still being shaped by the people around them.
The full Bench Note is attached below for readers who wish to explore His Lordship’s reflections in full.
Judicial Impact publishes reflections, commentary, and insight from within Uganda’s judiciary and beyond.
