Kampala, Uganda: The Uganda Law Society (ULS) on Friday hosted renowned American legal scholar Prof. Paul Butler at a landmark public lecture that delivered a sobering examination of the Rule of Law in the United States, and its enduring failures, particularly for Black communities.
Addressing over 200 attendees at ULS House in Kololo and an online audience, Prof. Butler, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University, used the rise of President Donald Trump and structural racism in the US to illustrate how legal systems often perpetuate injustice under the guise of order.
“When Trump attacks immigrants, Muslims, and Black communities, he isn’t inventing a new political ideology; he is reviving an old one,” Prof. Butler said.
The event was convened under the Radical New Bar (RNB) leadership of ULS President Isaac Ssemakadde, SC, as part of a broader mission to provoke fearless debate on legal and democratic accountability in Uganda and beyond.
“Rule of Law Must Be Rebuilt with Truth, Not Rhetoric”
Prof. Butler told the Ugandan legal fraternity that despite the United States having the world’s oldest written constitution still in use, its foundations were explicitly anti-Black and pro-slavery.
The legal Professor cited key constitutional clauses, the Three-Fifths Compromise, the Importation Clause, and the Fugitive Slave Clause as examples of how legal documents legitimized systemic oppression.
“On paper, we are equal, but not in practice,” Butler noted. “Most justice in the U.S. happens behind closed doors. The Rule of Law has historically failed the poor and people of colour.”
The Law Don also pointed to the “trial penalty” as a miscarriage of justice, where poor, Black defendants are pressured into guilty pleas regardless of innocence, simply to avoid harsher sentences at trial.
A Candid Call for Justice-Oriented Reform
In his concluding remarks, Prof. Butler called for a complete rebuilding of the Rule of Law, grounded in truth, not just constitutional symbolism. “The Rule of Law must reflect equity, justice, and shared power. Otherwise, it’s merely a tool of the powerful to discipline the powerless,” he warned.
ULS President Isaac Ssemakadde hailed the lecture as a historic moment for Uganda’s legal discourse, urging legal professionals to apply the lessons from Butler’s address to Uganda’s own constitutional and human rights realities.
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