East African Court of Justice, 28th February 2025; The President of the East African Court of Justice, Hon. Justice Nestor Kayobera, alongside other Court judges, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Senior Vice President for Global Impact and Chief of Staff, Pepperdine University, Mr. Danny Walt together with Justice Prof. Khaukha Andrew Judiciary Technical Advisor Uganda – Head Secretariat Africa Chief Justices’ ADR Forum, on capacity building in ADR Mechanisms.
This collaboration aims to advance the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism within the East African Court of Justice. The MoU includes the following five stated goals for 2025:
- Finalize MOU between East African Court of Justice and Pepperdine University.
- Enhance Civil ADR Capacity through custom-tailored strategic training and certificate.
- Programs for EACJ Judges.
- Analyze and Enhance Mediation and Arbitration framework and user guidelines.
- Begin student exchange program between Pepperdine students and EACJ judges.
- Continue enhancing the relationship and partnership between the Judiciary of Malawi and Pepperdine University.
To implement the MOU, the following proposed Activities will be conducted in four quarters from February to December 2025. These shall include;
- Stakeholder meetings in Kigali, Rwanda;
- Begin 6-week virtual civil ADR training;
- Strategic meeting to discuss civil ADR guidelines and rules;
- 2nd Annual ADR Summit in Mombasa, Kenya;
- Work begins on the LLM in International Commercial Arbitration;
- Begin virtual student externship program; In-person Commercial Mediation Training in Arusha;
- Africa Chief Justices Forum Annual Conference at Chateau and
- Deliver finalized civil ADR best practices manual
The MOU targets to achieve the key goals as follows; Stakeholders meeting will enable the two institutions memorialize the relationship between the EACJ and Pepperdine University and set forth the scope of desired activities in the partnership, the proposed action plan and discuss the strategic plan for the year and potential collaboration opportunities to maximize partnership impact in 2025; promote interest and build capacity for the use of Civil ADR in the disposition of cases at the EACJ; to discuss the EACJ’s vision for amendments of its mediation and arbitration rules and guidelines and begin the strategic planning process for implementation; Lay the framework for a successful ADR implementation by discussing and drafting robust rules and guidelines; the 2nd Annual ADR Summit – Mombasa, Kenya – July 2025 aims to discuss mediation, conflict resolution, and access to justice to continue to further capacity and interest in the expansion of ADR across Africa; begin LLM in ICA (International Commercial Arbitration)
Pepperdine will host a specially designed LLM in I.C.A. for Africa’s Chief Justices to continue building ADR Capacity and responding to the needs of the ACJAF; begin the Virtual Student Externship Program – August 2025, Pepperdine will assign two students to virtually extern for selected judges at the EACJ, the students will provide any research and writing assistance that the Judges request. In return, the students will receive valuable experience learning from the EACJ’s brilliant Jurists; In-Person Commercial Mediation Conference, Pepperdine will bring expert Civil ADR trainers to host a 2-day workshop on commercial mediation, to build mediation capacity for EACJ Judges in Arusha. ACJAF Annual Conference – Chateau – October, the Court to Participate in the Annual African Court Judges and African Forum (ACJAF) conference to discuss judicial reforms, the rule of law, and access to Justice to engage in high-level discussions with judges and legal professionals to identify areas of improvement for judicial systems across Africa. Present findings to the forum; and finally deliver ADR Best Practices, Pepperdine will take the feedback gathered during the in-person workshop and deliver a finalized version of the ADR Best Practices Manual for Distribution to provide a robust training document that streamlines onboarding to Civil ADR and establishes best practices for all key stakeholders.
The President of the Court, Justice Kayobera, commended the Pepperdine University for accepting the cooperation with the regional court, noting that the outcome will enhance access to justice within the East African Community. He added that, the Court is very positive and ready to implement the MOU following the proposed action plan. The MOU with Pepperdine comes at a time when disputes are increasing in the Court and therefore the partnership is timely to support the Court in dispensing justice through ADR best practice across the globe.
On his part Mr. Danny DeWAalt, expressed his gratitude to the East African Court of Justice for the invitation and continued friendship and partnership with Pepperdine University. “We are blessed to support your vision for increasing the efficient administration of justice within the EACJ” said the Senior Vice President Pepperdine University.
In attendance were Judges of the Appellate and First Instance Division and the Staff of the Court.
About the EACJ
The East African Court of Justice (EACJ or ‘the Court’), is one of the Organs of the East African Community established under Article 9 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. The Court was established in November 2001, its key mandate is to ensure the adherence to law in the interpretation and application of and compliance with the EAC Treaty. Arusha is the temporary seat of the Court until the Summit determines its permanent seat. The Court’s sub-registries are located in the capitals of the following Partner States: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania.
For more information please contact:
Christine Mutimura
Acting Registrar,
East African Court of Justice.
Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: 255-27-2162149
Email: cmwekesa@eachq.org