Procedures
A 2015 procedure code, community courts, and a Special Court with no appeal
The Civil Procedure Code of 2015 governs ordinary litigation through community, regional and High Court levels. Judicial independence is absent, and the Special Court removes appeal rights in the cases it takes.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Community courts, regional courts and the High Court; the High Court also sits as a final appellate bench.
Governing law
- Civil Procedure Code of Eritrea, Proclamation 168/2015
- Proclamation 1/1991 and subsequent decrees on court organisation
- Proclamation 85/1996 establishing the Special Court
In practice
The formal hierarchy runs from community courts staffed by elected lay judges, through regional courts, to the High Court, which also hears final appeals — there is no separate supreme court, and the constitutional provision for one was never implemented. Community courts handle small civil and family matters and are the level most people encounter. The 2015 code provides conventional civil-law procedure. What removes this from ordinary description is the Special Court and executive control: the Special Court can take any case, admits no appeal, and has been used to reverse ordinary court outcomes; the office of a formally independent judiciary does not function as such, and a former Chief Justice who criticised executive interference was removed and detained. Arbitration and foreign award enforcement have no meaningful published practice. There is no accessible law reporting.