Ethiopia Legal Profile

The politics of Ethiopia takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary republic, where the Prime Minister is the head of government and the President is the head of state who is left with ceremonial powers. Executive power is exercised by the government and federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament.

On the basis of Article 78 of the 1994 Ethiopian Constitution, the Judiciary is completely independent of the executive and the legislature.  For example, the legislation to prevent and sanction corruption in Ethiopia is strong as the Revised Federal Ethics, the Anti-corruption Commission Establishment Proclamation and the Revised Anti-Corruption Law criminalize attempted corruption and extortion, while the Criminal Code 2004 criminalises active and passive bribery including to foreign officials and money laundering.

However, the Freedom House report in 2014 shows that the judgements made “rarely deviate from government policy” and this is the case still in 2024.

Even though there is legislation in place to protect against corruption, companies still face a high risk of corruption when dealing with Ethiopia’s judiciary.  In return for favourable judgements giving bribes and irregular payments are common.

This shows that judges are highly vulnerable to corruption and are easily influenced by high-end officials. Where the judiciary is supposed to be independent it is influenced by corruption which is the norm in Ethiopia. Although there does seem to be a small improvement as the appointment of Meaza Ashenafi as chief justice of the Supreme Court has raised hopes of for judicial reforms.

Reference

• https://freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia