This article presents the primary provisions of the proposed African Principles on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts as a possible option in the further development of Ethiopian private international law of contract for consideration by the Ethiopian legislator and/or the Ethiopian courts. The proposed African Principles and the informal sources of Ethiopian private international law of contract are introduced and aspects of the contractual conflict of laws in Ethiopia and under the African Principles are compared, including choice of law (in particular, freedom of choice of law; partial and multiple choice of law; choice of a non-related legal system; and tacit choice of law), the law applicable in the absence of choice of law, and the substantive and formal validity of a contract. The article employs doctrinal and analytical methodology in respect of formal and informal legal standards, international instruments and academic literature to examine the various perspectives and arguments related to the relevant themes.
In the context of digital transformation, this article conducts a comparative study on the Vietnamese criminal offence of forgery and use of counterfeit seals and documents in comparison with several civil law regimes. Rooted in the underlying doctrines of protecting public trust and legal certainty, the research utilizes doctrinal analysis and comparative statutory scrutiny to disambiguate the offence’s protected legal interests, constituent elements, and applicable criminal policies. It shows that while all jurisdictions recognize forgery and use of counterfeit seals and documents as acts directly infringing upon public trust, their approaches to electronic documents, digital signatures, and digital seals diverge significantly. Vietnamese criminal law has yet to be fully integrated in terms of forgery or digital forgery law, in particular with regard to the definition and evidentiary status of electronic records. Thus, there is the need to introduce the concepts of ‘electronic document’ and ‘digital seal’ in the Penal Code, explicitly criminalizing forgery and use of these objects, and providing protocols for authentication and the forensic examination of electronic evidence. These interventions would be necessary to reinforce public confidence and ensure legal certainty in the digital age.
In a federal state structure, internal competence over some issues –regulated by international human rights treaties– is shared between ‘central’ and subnational governments. However, the federation (as a nation state) enjoys international legal personality, and it enters into international human rights treaties as a party to those treaties. Engaging subnational governments in the process of treaty making and its implementation is often considered as one of the mechanisms towards addressing gaps in implementation. This article examines the extent to which the engagement of regional states (in the making and implementation of international human rights) is regulated in the Ethiopian federal system. It relies on the relevant laws, literature, insights from other federal countries and some interviews. Even though the FDRE Constitution did not leave a space for regional states to engage in international human rights treaties, recent laws (on treaty making, intergovernmental relation and investment) embody legal and institutional frameworks which can enhance the implementation of international human rights treaties. However, some of the laws have gaps in implementation, while others are yet to be implemented. Moreover, the laws limit the scope of engagement only to ratified international human rights treaties. Extending the scope of engagement to domains such as soft human rights instruments adopted by Ethiopia and the Universal Periodic Review reports can make it more holistic. This requires a broader scope of engagement with due regard to the principles of intergovernmental relations and federalism.
The interface of groundwater and land tenure governance is intricate, bundled with overlapping and contesting interests and reciprocal implications. The core issues in the interface relate to institutions, rules, actors, and the processes involved in making decisions and formulating law and policy frameworks. Research on the actors of water governance and examining the context, interactions, and implications is essential to analyse tenure governance. This article mainly explores the institutional, dimensional, content, and relational aspects of water governance in post-conflict settings within the selected case studies from Tigray Region. Besides, the structures, actors, and decision-making processes are explored with a view to indicating the policy options and strategies of reconstruction. The realities on the intersection of conflict-related factors, groundwater water and land tenure governance are explored through the qualitative research approach by triangulating the relevant data, primary and secondary sources, participants, and methods in the cases. The existing water governance, as a one-size-fits-all approach, is assessed to determine whether it promotes sustainable, efficient, equitable, and inclusive water governance during and in a post-conflict setting. The status of water allocation and utilisation, tenure security, and spheres of dispute settlement are also assessed. Policy options and helpful appraisal strategies are outlined based on the opportunities and challenges thereof. The existing opportunities, where Irrigation Water Associations (IWAs) and Water Committees can be revitalised and scaled up into similar cases and contexts, are indicated with specific suggestions on the way forward.
This article examines the normative framework for court-ordered non-custodial community service in the Ethiopian criminal justice system. Community service order applies to minor offences and requires offenders to perform certain work and services rather than imprisonment. The scheme is addressed under two provisions of the 2004 Criminal Code, and many issues are not addressed. The themes that are not addressed include the issue of matching the skill of offenders and available work, the constituents of failure to discharge community service order, the effect of committing a crime during the period of community service order, the maximum and minimum working hours per day, and more importantly, the institutional setups. Based on doctrinal and analytical legal research, this author argues that fixing the duration of community service in days/months can pose difficulty for enforcement. Furthermore, perfect equivalence between the length of imprisonment and the duration of community service does not seem practicable and logical. Automatic revocation and/or imposition of imprisonment in case of failure to discharge the order would not be a tenable response, and other preliminary measures, such as warning and imposition of a fine without revoking the order, are appropriate. Hence, the scheme requires normative reconsiderations for implementation and its effectiveness as an alternative to imprisonment.
