Ethiopia’s Constitutional Framework and Legal Institutions for Development

Abstract

Though one of the key organizing principles that underpin the current constitution is the creation of a single economic community, the country’s long history of legal transplantation does not necessarily complement this aspiration. This chapter examines how the state-managed developmental enterprise continuously negotiates with the rather ‘foreign’ legal elements, usually to the former’s detriment. The chapter takes a closer look at some of the key elements of the constitution and legal institutions vital for economic growth. Ethiopia’s federal state system together with the developmental state approach can only positively contribute to the creation of a single economic community when some of the key areas in the country’s legal development are revisited to align with its economic development model. The various areas examined in this work demonstrate the dilemmas faced when using law as instrument to achieve economic progress under the developmental state policy of the government in power.