Commercial Courts (Rwanda)

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Rwanda created a separate tier of courts in 2008 to hear commercial, financial and tax disputes, with the aim of resolving business cases faster than the general civil courts had managed.
What are the main aims and objectives?

Rwanda's government created the commercial courts to settle business disputes faster and to build confidence in commercial justice. Sam Rugege, Chief Justice from 2011 to 2019, wrote that the courts aimed to speed up the adjudication of commercial disputes. This mattered in a country that was prioritizing the attraction of investors.

The barrier was a court system that could not cope with demand. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi destroyed much of the judiciary. Prosecuting genocide crimes then took priority for years. Vincent Karega, then Minister of State for Industry and Investment Promotion, said competing needs made commercial justice reform impossible until 2001. Ministers took the idea of separate commercial courts seriously only from 2005.

Backlog figures show the scale of the problem. The judiciary held 57,088 pending cases in 2003, some dating from 1982. Human Rights Watch counted nearly 48,000 pending cases across the system at the end of 2006. Business users waited a long time for judgments. World Bank data for that period recorded 310 days to enforce a contract, at a cost of 78.7 percent of the claim.

Rwanda inherited a civil law system from Belgian colonial rule. From the mid-2000s the government began adding common law features, including published law reports and binding precedent. The commercial courts formed one part of a wider program to improve the business environment. Related measures included an arbitration law in 2008, ratification of the New York Convention, and the Kigali International Arbitration Centre.

How does the program work?

Rwanda runs two tiers of commercial court. The Commercial Court hears commercial cases at first instance. The Commercial High Court hears appeals from it. Both sit in Kigali, and both have jurisdiction across the whole country.

The structure changed in 2018. The 2012 organic law had created three first-instance commercial courts, at Nyarugenge in Kigali, at Huye and at Musanze. Law n° 012/2018 replaced them with a single Commercial Court whose territorial jurisdiction covers the entire national territory. Rwanda therefore now runs two commercial courts rather than four.

The law defines commercial matters broadly, listing fifteen categories of dispute. These include commercial contracts, bank lending, insurance, insolvency and bankruptcy, disputes among company shareholders and directors, trademarks and business names, competition and consumer protection.

Tax and customs disputes also fall to these courts. The Commercial Court hears tax cases arising under the East African Community Customs Management Act. The Commercial High Court recognizes foreign commercial judgments and hears appeals against arbitrators' decisions. Since 2018, parties can appeal further to the Court of Appeal.

A single judge normally hears each case, assisted by a registrar. The President of the Commercial High Court can assign three or more judges to a complex appeal.

Before 2008, ordinary civil courts heard commercial disputes alongside all other civil work. The reform moved that work to judges recruited for their knowledge of commercial law. Any business or individual with a qualifying dispute may file.

Court fees are low. A 2018 ministerial order sets a refundable deposit of 20,000 Rwandan francs, about 21 US dollars, at the Commercial Court, and 40,000 francs at the Commercial High Court. Courts waive fees for people who cannot pay. Litigants do not have to use a lawyer in either commercial court, though minimum advocate fees run to about 500,000 francs for those who do.

The law requires courts to decide a case within six months. The government has also pushed disputes toward settlement. The commercial courts piloted court-annexed mediation in 2018, and the judiciary later extended it to all courts. Registrars attempt mediation at the pre-trial stage. All commercial filing is electronic, through the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS), which went live nationwide in 2017.

What is the overall cost?

Rwanda has not published a separate budget for the commercial courts. Their costs sit inside the judiciary's overall budget, and no public document separates them. The state funds the courts. In December 2024 the judiciary presented a five-year strategic plan worth over 141 billion Rwandan francs, covering all courts rather than the commercial courts alone. Donors funded parts of the original reform: the World Bank's Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project paid for commercial law drafting and judicial training from 2001. Litigants contribute through the small refundable filing deposits described above.

How was it implemented?

The Supreme Court administers the commercial courts, as it does all other courts. The High Council of the Judiciary approves judicial appointments and handles discipline. The President appoints the President and Vice President of the Commercial High Court by presidential order, after Senate approval. The President of the Supreme Court appoints the other commercial judges.

Staffing the new courts required commercial law expertise the country lacked. The government hired two Mauritian judges to work alongside Rwandan judges for the first three years of operation. Reporting in December 2007 said seven Mauritian judges were expected, so the final number is disputed. Rwanda also created the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD) in 2008. It runs a nine-month diploma that new judges must complete.

Clotilde Mukamurera has served as President of the Commercial High Court since the Senate confirmed her appointment in April 2021. She holds a master's degree in business law and sat on the Court of Justice of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Christine Kanyamibwa serves as President of the Commercial Court. Sam Rugege led the judiciary as Chief Justice from 2011 to 2019 and has documented the reform in detail.

Key dates:

  • 2005: ministers agree to create separate commercial courts
  • 16 December 2007: Organic Law n° 59/2007 establishes the courts
  • March 2008: the courts open, though one World Bank account gives May 2008
  • 14 September 2012: Organic Law n° 06/2012/OL restructures the system
  • 2017: electronic case management extends to all courts
  • 4 April 2018: Law n° 012/2018 merges the three first-instance courts into a single Commercial Court, and the new Court of Appeal begins taking appeals from the Commercial High Court
What impact has been measured?

Evidence on the commercial courts reaches Level 3. No Level 4 evidence exists.

At Level 1, participation, the commercial courts received about 8,825 litigation cases in the 2020 to 2021 judicial year. A legal practitioner reported that figure from judiciary data, so it is not a direct official publication. The Commercial High Court currently has seven judges and the Commercial Court fifteen.

At Level 2, outcomes, Rwandan law requires courts to decide a case within six months. The judiciary reported average disposal times of three to four months between 2013 and 2019. By December 2024 that average had risen to about ten months across all courts. The World Bank reported, citing an official interview in January 2010, that the commercial courts had cleared their backlog by the end of 2009. That is the policymakers' own claim rather than independent evidence.

At Level 3, wider impact, World Bank contract enforcement data improved steadily after the reform. Time to enforce a contract fell from 310 days to 230 days by the 2020 edition. Cost fell from 78.7 to 64.6 percent of the claim over the same period. Rwanda scored 16 out of 18 on the quality of judicial processes index in 2020. The World Bank discontinued Doing Business in 2021 and replaced it with Business Ready, so the series stops there.

At Level 4, causal proof, no control group study or formal evaluation of the commercial courts was found.

What lessons can be learned?

Speed has not held. The backlog rate across Rwandan courts rose from 25 percent in 2017/18 to 59 percent in 2023/24, as case volumes grew faster than judge numbers. Judges handled an average of 49 cases a month by late 2024. Staff turnover reached about 35 percent over twenty years, driven partly by pay, and the judiciary estimated it needed 9.7 billion Rwandan francs to raise judicial salaries.

Commercial justice is concentrated in Kigali. Both courts sit in the capital, and the 2018 merger removed the seats at Huye and Musanze. Electronic filing reduces the need to travel, but satisfaction with it is uneven: a 2019 government scorecard recorded 40.7 percent satisfaction with online case filing.

Fast judgments do not always mean fast enforcement. The enforcement module of the electronic system was still awaiting a ministerial order at the end of 2019. Filing is cheap, but litigating well is not, and minimum advocate fees put representation beyond many small firms.

Judicial independence remains contested. The President appoints senior judges, subject to Senate approval. A legal research guide published by New York University has questioned the December 2024 appointment of a Chief Justice who had never served as a judge.

Three lessons travel. First, sequence the reform: Rwanda paired the courts with new commercial laws, an arbitration law and mediation, rather than creating courts alone. Second, borrow expertise for a fixed period, as Rwanda did with foreign judges for three years while it trained its own. Third, plan for the caseload that success creates, because faster courts attract more filings and staffing has not kept pace. The World Bank found that across seven Sub-Saharan African economies that introduced commercial courts or divisions, including Rwanda, the average time to resolve its standardized case fell by more than five months.

The early gains are well documented. Sustaining them has proved harder.

Notes + Additional Context
  1. Organic Law n° 06/2012/OL of 14/09/2012 determining the organisation, functioning and jurisdiction of Commercial Courts. Republic of Rwanda, Official Gazette n°45, 2012. https://rwandalii.org/akn/rw/act/ol/2012/6/eng@2012-05-11
  2. Organic Law n° 59/2007 of 16/12/2007 establishing the commercial courts and determining their organisation, functioning and jurisdiction. Republic of Rwanda, 16 December 2007. WIPO Lex. https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/10872
  3. Law n° 012/2018 of 04/04/2018 determining the organisation and functioning of the Judiciary, Articles 68 and 71. Republic of Rwanda, 2018. https://rwandalii.org/akn/rw/act/law/2018/12/eng@2018-05-30/source.pdf
  4. Law n° 30/2018 of 02/06/2018 determining the jurisdiction of courts, Articles 38 and 92. Republic of Rwanda, Official Gazette n° Special of 02/06/2018. https://rwandalii.org/akn/rw/act/law/2018/30/eng@2018-06-02/source.pdf
  5. Organic Law n° 002/2018.OL of 04/04/2018 establishing the Court of Appeal. Ministry of Justice, Republic of Rwanda, 2018. https://www.minijust.gov.rw/news-detail/organic-law-establishing-the-court-of-appeal
  6. Hertveldt, Sabine. "Building specialized commercial courts in Rwanda." Celebrating Reforms 2008, World Bank and International Finance Corporation, 2008. https://archive.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/case-studies/2008/building-specialized-commercial-courts-in-rwanda
  7. Traoré, Moussa, Adrian Gonzalez, César Giovanni Chaparro, Jean Michel Lobet and Jonathan Bailey. "Rwanda: fostering prosperity by promoting entrepreneurship." Doing Business 2013, World Bank, 26 October 2012. https://archive.doingbusiness.org/en/reports/case-studies/2012/fostering-prosperity-by-promoting-entrepreneurship-in-rwanda
  8. Rugege, Sam. "Some Aspects of Judicial Reform in Rwanda from 2004 to 2019." Rwanda Law Journal, 2019. https://rwandalawjournal.ac.rw/uploads/articles/main/7ECA331476244C24A0A0A53DB7FB2BE21686921234169.pdf
  9. Doing Business 2020: Economy Profile — Rwanda. World Bank, 2019. https://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/country/r/rwanda/RWA.pdf
  10. Law and Reality: Progress in Judicial Reform in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch, 25 July 2008. https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/07/25/law-and-reality/progress-judicial-reform-rwanda
  11. "Rwanda: New Study Recommends Ways to Address Judicial Staff Turnover, Case Backlog." The New Times, via allAfrica, 28 December 2024. https://allafrica.com/stories/202412280009.html
  12. "Rwanda: Inside Rwandan Judiciary's New Five-Year Strategy." The New Times, via allAfrica, 31 December 2024. https://allafrica.com/stories/202412310111.html
  13. Kimenyi, Felly. "Mauritian judges hired for commercial courts." The New Times, 10 December 2007. https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/1992
  14. "Kagame Appoints Courts' Presidents, Supreme Court Justice." KT Press, 21 April 2021. https://www.ktpress.rw/2021/04/kagame-appoints-courts-presidents-supreme-court-justice/
  15. "Commercial High Court" and "Commercial Court." Judiciary of Rwanda, accessed 11 November 2026. https://old.judiciary.gov.rw/index.php?id=45 and https://old.judiciary.gov.rw/index.php?id=46
  16. "Our Judges" and "Courts Structure." Judiciary of Rwanda, accessed 11 November 2026. https://www.judiciary.gov.rw/about-the-judiciary/our-judges and https://www.judiciary.gov.rw/courts-structure
  17. "Dispute resolution practices progressing across the continent." LexAfrica, August 2022. https://lexafrica.com/2022/08/dispute-resolution-practices-progressing-across-the-continent/
  18. "Rwanda's Justice Sector Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS)." Synisys, accessed 11 November 2026. https://www.synisys.com/case-studies/rwandas-justice-sector-integrated-electronic-case-management-system-iecms/
  19. Law n° 005/2008 of 14/02/2008 on arbitration and conciliation in commercial matters. Republic of Rwanda, Official Gazette, 2008.
  20. "Rwanda's Legal System and Legal Materials." GlobaLex, New York University School of Law, accessed 11 November 2026. https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/rwanda1.html
  21. Judiciary Strategic Plan 2018–2024. Judiciary of Rwanda. https://e-ihuriro.rcsprwanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/8.JUDICIAL_STRATEGIC_PLAN_2018_-_2024.pdf

CURATED BY

Tom Hancock

Manager for AI and Research
Global Entrepreneurship Network
United Kingdom