Lawyers in Uganda have been directed to stop bowing before judges and to abandon traditional court titles such as “My Lord,” “Your Lordship,” “My Lady” and “Your Worship.”
The directive was issued by the President of the Uganda Law Society, Isaac K. Ssemakadde, through Executive Order RNB No. 12 of 2026.
The order was released on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, to coincide with Saba Saba Day, which marks resistance against authoritarianism in East Africa.
Under the directive, members of the Uganda Law Society are no longer to engage in physical gestures of deference before judicial officers.
They are also barred from using what the order describes as colonial-era and feudal forms of address in court.
Instead, judges and other judicial officers are to be addressed with simpler titles.
Appellate court judges may be addressed as “Mr. Justice” or “Madam Justice,” while High Court judges may be called “Mr. Judge” or “Madam Judge.”
