Rights
Ethnic federalism, and constitutional interpretation that is not done by judges
The 1995 FDRE Constitution creates a federation of regional states delineated largely on ethnolinguistic lines, with an Article 39 right of secession. Constitutional interpretation is vested in the House of Federation, advised by the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, rather than in any court.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Federal. Regional states have their own constitutions, legislatures and court hierarchies; federal courts hear federal matters and cassation.
Governing law
- Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 1995
- Article 39 — right of nations, nationalities and peoples to self-determination including secession
- Proclamation 250/2001 on the Council of Constitutional Inquiry
In practice
Ethiopia is the clearest case in Africa of constitutional review being deliberately kept away from the judiciary. Where a case raises a constitutional question, the court refers it to the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, a body of judges and legal experts that investigates and then makes a recommendation to the House of Federation, the upper chamber composed of representatives of the nations and nationalities. The House decides. The design follows from Article 39: if sovereignty rests with the constituent peoples, then the body representing those peoples, not a court of appointed lawyers, resolves what the compact means. The practical consequence is that Ethiopian constitutional doctrine develops slowly and politically, and that a litigant cannot obtain a binding declaration of unconstitutionality from the Federal Supreme Court. The Cassation Division of that court does, however, bind lower courts on questions of ordinary law, which is a 2005 innovation in a system that historically denied precedential force altogether.