Journal of Ethiopian Law

የኢትዮጵያ ድንበር ተሻጋሪ የኢኮኖሚ ሕግጋት ቅኝት፦ ንግድ፣ ኢንቨስትመንት እና የግልግል ዳኝነት

2025-09-14T17:59:14+00:00

ይህ ጽሑፍ የኢትዮጵያ ድንበር ተሻጋሪ የኢኮኖሚ ሕጎችን በተለይም ንግድን፥ ኢንቨስትመንትንና የግልግል ዳኝነትን የሚመለከቱትን ሕጎች እድገቶችንና አሁን ያሉበት ሁኔታን በጥልቀት ይመረምራል። እነዚህ የሕግ እድገቶች ግልፅ ባልሆነ ምክንያት አስቀድመው ይሁንታን ካገኙ የሕግ ሰነዶች የተለዩ መሆናቸውን በግኝቱ የዳሰሰው ይህ መጣጥፍ፤ ተቀባይነት ያለው፥ ምክንያታዊ፥ ሊረጋገጥ የሚችል እና ለሙግት የሚመች ኢኮኖሚያዊ፥ ማህበራዊና ሌሎች ዓላማዎችን ለማሳካት ሲባል ልዩነቶችን መቀነስ እንደሚገባ ምክረሀሳብ ይሰጣል።

Litigating Constitutional Rights in Ethiopia: A Joinder to Mizanie Abate Tadesse

2025-09-14T18:34:59+00:00

Amid Ethiopia’s unfolding political volatility, investors face significant risks of investment losses due to political violence, including riots, violent protests, and similar incidents. This paper, through a doctrinal analysis of relevant domestic legislation, treaty provisions, arbitral decisions, and scholarly literature, evaluates the adequacy of legal protections for investments under domestic laws and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). The study reveals a sharp disparity in legal protections afforded to foreign and domestic investors against the risks of political violence. Notably, foreign investors benefit from compensation mechanisms under BITs, including Full Protection and Security (FPS) clauses and War Clauses, whereas domestic investors lack comparable remedies, leading to discriminatory treatment despite facing identical risks. Of course, investors might seek remedies via tort claims against individual wrongdoers and, theoretically, through constitutional tort actions, although the latter have yet to receive practical recognition. However, these mechanisms are inadequate to address the multifaceted challenges of investment losses caused by political violence. Furthermore, some BITs provide extensive protections for foreign investments against such risks without exceptions, broadening Ethiopia’s obligations during times of political uncertainty. To address this imbalance, the study recommends legal reforms, including enacting domestic investment laws with comprehensive compensation mechanisms and renegotiating BITs to incorporate emergency clauses. The article further highlights the importance of institutional reforms, including implementing preventive strategies, strengthening law enforcement capabilities, promoting political dialogue, and expanding investment insurance coverage to include political violence, all of which are essential for reducing investment risks and enhancing investor confidence.

The New Ethiopian Investment Legal Regime: Changes and Context

2025-09-14T18:49:45+00:00

Ethiopia has been undergoing tremendous policy and legislative reforms since 2018. The reform generally pursued an ‘open-door’ economic policy replacing previous laws and government decisions that were considered restrictive. Among the key areas that were the subject of the reform was the investment regulatory regime. This article examines the changes introduced in the investment legal regime in the context of historical investment regulation in Ethiopia. It shows that, while the public announcements of the reforms, including those relating to privatization of state-owned enterprises indicated a significant shift in economic policy, the new investment laws adopted a more cautious approach. The new investment laws saw the re-introduction of previously tested rules on investment admission, and re-adjustments of administrative rules in investment administration. While some progressive steps were taken to liberalize previously protected sectors, fundamental and comprehensive changes to investment regulation were not made. More revisions are needed to relax sectoral restrictions, waive minimum capital requirements, ease bureaucratic processes and improve regulatory coordination.

Rethinking Legal Protections for Investments against Political Violence in Ethiopia

2025-09-14T19:04:23+00:00

The Judicial Interpretation of the Constitutional Right to Freedom of Expression in Ethiopia: The Application of the Principle of Proportionality

2025-09-14T19:32:58+00:00

This article claims that Ethiopian courts interpret the grounds of limitation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression extremely broadly, in a manner that unjustifiably restricts the right. By reviewing selected decisions handed down by the federal courts, the article attempts to show the prevailing interpretive approaches adopted by the judiciary. It evaluates the existing approaches of the Ethiopian courts in light of the methodological approaches of selected comparative national and international judicial practices. It will attempt to show that the judiciary’s failure to interpret freedom of expression optimally has to do in part with its inability to adopt a helpful interpretative approach. Moreover, the Ethiopian courts’ efforts to interpret relevant legislation in light of Ethiopia's international commitment to human rights and the constitutional protection of freedom of expression leave much to be desired. The article argues that the deployment of the principle of proportionality as an interpretive methodology can help the Ethiopian judiciary to enforce the constitutional right to freedom of expression optimally.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Affirms State Responsibility for Violence against Women

2025-09-14T19:42:11+00:00