Artificial Intelligence and the Transformation of Legal Education in Uganda: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy Imperatives

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping legal education globally, yet Uganda's law faculties remain anchored in doctrinal, lecturer-centered pedagogy with limited institutional engagement with AI-driven tools. This article examines how AI, including automated legal research platforms, AI-assisted drafting, virtual moot court simulations, and adaptive learning systems, is altering the teaching and practice of law in Uganda, and assesses the country's legal and institutional readiness for this transformation. Using a doctrinal and comparative policy analysis approach now strengthened by a mixed-methods empirical component combining a stratified stakeholder survey with embedded case-study interviews the study reviews Uganda's existing legal framework, including the 1995 Constitution, the Data Protection and Privacy Act, the Computer Misuse Act, and the Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions Act, to identify the extent to which current law addresses AI use in education. The article finds that while these instruments offer partial and indirect regulation, Uganda lacks a dedicated AI-in-education policy, leaving significant gaps in governance around academic integrity, data privacy, ethical accountability, and digital inequality. Drawing on comparative experience from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Kenya examined here not only for policy design but for documented outcomes and unresolved challenges the article identifies practical lessons for curriculum reform and institutional governance that are contextually relevant to Uganda. The article concludes that Uganda's legal education sector should not resist AI integration but must regulate it deliberately, through a national AI-in-education policy, curriculum reform incorporating legal technology and AI ethics, institutional AI governance frameworks, capacity building for legal educators, and regulatory guidance from the Law Council of Uganda. These measures are necessary to safeguard academic integrity, equitable access, and the analytical rigor expected of future legal professionals in an increasingly automated educational environment.