Legal Writing in Africa

Since 2003, Professors Mimi Samuel and Laurel Currie Oates have provided training in legal writing to more than 500 judges, magistrates, and attorneys in Uganda and South Africa.

Professors Samuel and Oates first visited Africa in December 2003, at the invitation of the Ugandan government to train attorneys in its anti-corruption unit to communicate more effectively not only with judges and other lawyers but also with a wide range of citizens. That invitation was followed by invitations in 2005 to provide training in effective judgment writing for Uganda's High Court judges and in 2007 to provide training for Uganda's magistrates.  While in Uganda, Professors Samuel and Oates worked with the faculty at the Law Development Centre, Uganda's post-graduate legal institution, on ways to incorporate the teaching of legal writing in its program.

In addition, in 2007 and 2008, Professors Samuel and Oates worked in South Africa providing training sessions on effective legal writing for judges and magistrates; for attorneys practicing in a wide variety of areas; for faculties at a variety of academic institutions; and for law students.

In March 2007, Professors Samuel and Oates organized a legal writing conference in Nairobi, Kenya, which was attended by 20 legal writing professors from the United States and 30 academics from seven countries in Africa. That conference was sponsored by Seattle University School of Law, the Legal Writing Institute (LWI), and the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) and provided academics in Africa an opportunity to learn about the legal writings programs that have been developed in the United States. In addition, it allowed academics from the United States to learn about how these skills are taught in African institutions.

As the result of the Nairobi conference, the participants established an organization called APPEAL (Academics Promoting the Pedagogy of Effective Advocacy in Law), which brings together academics from the U.S. and from Africa to promote the teaching of legal writing.  Professor Samuel is the United States co-president of that organization, and Professor Janet Dickson is its treasurer.

In the first year and a half of its existence, APPEAL has achieved two major accomplishments.  First, it raised almost $20,000 to provide transportation and accommodation grants to seven African academics so that they could attend the Legal Writing Institute's biennial conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, in July 2008.  Second, it collected over two tons of law books and, in conjunction with The Boeing Company and Kenya Airways, transported those books to Nairobi where they were distributed to institutions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.  Finally, APPEAL is planning a conference in conjunction with the University of Pretoria for July 2009.