TITLE:
Plea Agreements as Unconscionable Contracts. The Ugandan Experience
AUTHORS:
Gladys Kisekka Nakibuule
KEYWORDS:
Plea Agreements, Unconscionable Contracts, Accused Contractual Capacity, Freedom to Contract, Uganda
JOURNAL NAME:
Beijing Law Review,
Vol.15 No.4,
December
12,
2024
ABSTRACT: This article explores the challenge that most plea agreements in states such as Uganda might not conform to the legal contractual tenets, a gap that seemingly impugns their legitimacy rendering them unconscionable voidable contracts in law. To test this hypothesis, the author adopts the empirical data from her earlier Nakibuule (2023) case study of Uganda’s High Court bargained trials from 2014 to 2021 conducted in 11 High Court Circuits of Uganda: Arua, Fort Portal, Gulu, Kabale, Lira, Masaka, Masindi, Mbale, Mbarara, Mubende, Soroti; and two High Court Divisions: Kampala High Court Criminal Division, and The International Criminal Division, Kololo. In that study, she employed qualitative doctrinal legal research and empirical narratives of a population sample of 66 convicts and 60 justice actors, with some of the field survey trends quantitatively explained. She selected its respondents using Quota; Purposive; Random; and Snowballing Sampling techniques. Analytical data evidences: how some accused enter plea agreements while minors; some others for the crimes they committed while minors but when grown into adults before trials; diverse fears and anxieties that most battle with during the negotiations, mostly amidst non-conducive ambience, negatively impact their sobriety to contract legit bargains; and the coercive and undue influence traits induce several of them into involuntary plea-agreements showcasing limited freedom to contract. These findings suggest that plea agreements can be irrevocable due to the accused’s limited contractual capacity and freedom to contract them. The article offers both legal and institutional reforms to rethink plea bargains as legit contracts for Uganda that can also extrapolate to other jurisdictions.