Dr Maureen Mapp is a lawyer whose research and teaching interests are in public law and private law particularly how to bridge the normative gap between law and non-state ethno cultural norms. In this regard, Maureen has provided technical expertise to the Commonwealth Secretariat on adoption of cryptocurrencies and their impact on agricultural based economies. In collaboration with UNAFRI, Maureen convened the first ever round table discussions (2016, 2017) on the policy, legal and socio-cultural implications of regulating distributed ledger technologies including cryptocurrency and the blockchain in Africa. She has also provided technical expertise to the Council of Europe Cybercrime division on the development of sustainable cybercrime legislation in East Africa.
Dr. Mapp also researches the cultural transformation of domestic and international sentencing frameworks while drawing on sentencing practices of kinship communities that have a decentralised system of governance. This work draws on her professional service, when she offered technical advice to the Uganda Law Reform Commission on the development of sentencing guidelines for Judicial Officers, and provided technical expertise on the drafting of The Constitution (Sentencing Guidelines For Courts Of Judicature) (Practice) Directions, Legal Notice 8 of 2013. In 2017, Maureen together with the Judicial Training Institute, organised a meeting of Uganda’s Sentencing Policy Committee to evaluate the application of the Community Impact Statement- a tool for judiciary- community engagement in the Sentencing guidelines.
Maureen is a qualified advocate of the Superior Courts of Uganda, a Fellow of the African Centre on Cyber law and Cyber Crime Prevention (ACCP), and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Maureen uses a dialogic approach to teaching as a means of enhancing the student’s learning experience.