The Ethiopian constitution as a modern model for a traditional culture in Africa

• Published in: Verfassung und Recht in Übersee 2007-01, Vol.40 (2), p.159-175
• Main Author: Scholler, Heinrich
• Format: Article
• Language: ger
• Subjects: Africa; Constitution; Ethiopia; Legal norms; Modern society; Political development; Political structure; Political systems; Traditional culture
• ISSN: 0506-7286

Ethiopia belongs to the least developed countries, the so called LDC countries, as far as economy is concerned. However the constitutional development always played an important role not only for Ethiopia, but also for other countries, especially because Ethiopia was never colonized by Western countries not withstanding the short period of the Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941. The revised Ethiopian constitution 1955 based on the earlier one of 1931 was already a model trying to combine traditional and modern constitutional elements. This is even more true for the new constitutions of 1994, which incorporated an extended section granting human rights, federal structure of the country, a parliamentary system and constitutional review. This Ethiopian constitution tries to combine again the traditional elements like the different ethnical groups in the second chamber, with modern constitutional structures. The question to what extent democracy had been re-established or further developed is still discussed because the economic situation and the problem of multi-ethnicity have up to now made it very difficult to strengthen an open and democratic civil society. The legal and constitutional history of Ethiopia shows that throughout centuries feudalism and the monarchical power had been the underlying powers to build the constitutional system more or less as imperial decisions. The modernisation of this long lasting tradition started in the middle of the 19th century by the four so called Reform Emperors. In so far as the Ethiopian constitution could be used as a model for other African states, which need a high degree of decentralisation, collaboration between quite different ethnicities depends also from the answer to the question whether there is something like an African legal family. Naturally the Anglophone or Francophone models, like the Westminster Model or the French Neo-presidentialism, can not be seen as typical examples of African legal families. If we accept the existence of something like a common customary African law, which in reality did not exist, characterized by collectivism, slowliness and religious identity we would have to oppose this picture with the Ethiopian constitutional model. This Ethiopian structure of legal and constitutional frame work of society is in contrast to the traditional African characterized by individualism, greater independence of women and separation of religious institution (the church) and governmental power. On