A critical analysis of the sentencing guidelines in Uganda: to what extent have the courts applied the guidelines when sentencing
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kampala international University, School of Law
Abstract
This work entails and focuses on the case study of the Sentencing Guidelines in Uganda, the extent of its application when sentencing and the impact of failure to apply such sentencing guidelines when sentencing.
The study illustrates and demonstrates that the sentencing guidelines were newly promulgated in to the Ugandan judicial system by the then Ugandan Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki upon issuance of the Constitution (Sentencing Guidelines for the Courts of (Practice) Directions on 26 April 2013 as a result of the country's judiciary faces during the sentencing phase of criminal cases. Of particular concern are chronically unwarranted disparities in sentences in which charges under the same offense involving similar circumstances often result in greatly varying punishments, in part because of unfettered Judicial discretion, corruption, favoritism, and influence peddling.
It shows how the judicial system in Uganda has with time evolved and developed mechanisms in order to secure consistence, guard against abuse of judicial discretion and unwarranted disparities in sentencing through the sentencing guidelines.
This study analyses these concepts and adopts a purposive approach, and calls for a shift from too much concentration on the criminal justice in Uganda towards offering such guidelines to the civil litigation due to the fact that much disputes are observed in the civil and commercial sector of the country.
Description
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Law in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of Bachelors of Laws of Kampala International University
Keywords
Uganda, Courts