SOME UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION OF ETHIOPIA: A GIANT LEAP IN THE DARK?
by Yared Legesse Mengistu
14 January (Friday), 1.30 PM
Central European University, Nador 11, 616
1051 Budapest, Nádor u. 11.
Ethiopia has ratified a new Constitution in 1995. Much ink has been spilled trying to figure out if Ethiopia has made appropriate and workable constitutional choices. One scholar has dubbed this Constitution “a giant leap in the dark.” Another scholar says that the country has chosen an anthropological basis for the state when it upheld the unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession for the every Nation, Nationality or People in the country as the grand constitutional narrative. Indeed, the Constitution of Ethiopia thrives on controversy ranging from authorship of the Constitution to the veto power each sub-national unit (or Nation, Nationality or People) has over significant constitutional amendments.
Yared Legesse Mengistu has earned his LL.M and S.J.D from CEU in Comparative Constitutional Law in 2004 and 2011 respectively. He is currently Part-Time Assistant Professor at the Graduate Program of the Law faculty of Addis Ababa University. He teaches courses such as Minority Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, Contemporary Issues in Constitutional Law, etc.