መምህሩ ወጣቱን ተማሪ ጠየቀው፤ “በየዓመቱ ይህን ፎቶ ታሳየኛለህ፣ ሁሌም አስተያየቴ አንድ ነው፣ አይረባም። ይህን ያህል ፎቶውን ለምን ወደድከው?”

ወጣቱ መለሰ፤ “ምክንያቱማ፤ ይህን የተፈጥሮ ገጽታ ለመፎተት በጣም ትልቅ ተራራ በእንፉቅቅ መውጣት ስለነበረብኝ ነው”።

 የመታደል ውጤት/ተጽእኖ

የተለያዩ ጥናቶችና ግንጥል-ታሪኮች (Anecdotes) እንደሚያሳዩት ሰዎች በእጃቸው ላለ ነገር የሚሰጡት ዋጋ/ቦታ/ግምት፣ ነገሩ ባይኖራቸው ኖሮ ከሚሰጡት ዋጋ ይበልጣል። ሰዎች የሚፈልጉትን ያውቃሉ፣ ፍላጎታቸው ደግሞ ሙሉ፣ ወጥ፣ እና ተሻጋሪ ነው ይሉናል የክላሲካል የምጣኔ ኃብት ምሁሮች፡፡ በእነሱ አባባል ለአንድ ነገር የምንሰጠው ዋጋ ተመሳሳይ ነው፣ ነገሩ በእጃችን ሲኖርና ሳይኖር፡፡ በዚህ ረገድ፣ በእጅ የያዙት ወርቅ ከመዳብ ይቆጠራል፣ በጉዋሮ ያለ ጸበል ልጥ መንከሪያ ይሆናል፣ ደብተራ ባገሩ አይከበርም፤ አወኩሽ ናኩሽ ከሚሉት ያገራችን አባባሎች ጋር ይጣረሳል፡፡ በእነዚህ አባባሎች መሠረት፣ በእጃችን ላለ ነገር የምንሰጠው ዋጋ ነገሩ ባይኖረን ከምንሰጠው ዋጋ ያንሳል። (የአገራችን አባባሎች መሰረታቸው ምንድን ነው? ነገሩ በእጃችን ከገባ በሁዋላ ለምንድን ነው የምንሰጠው ዋጋ የሚቀንሰው? ነገሩ እንደ ልባሽ/ያገለገለ ስለሚቆጠርና መልሰን ልንሸጠው ብንሞክር ስለሚቀንስ ነው? ነገሩ በገበያ የማይሸጥ ቢሆንስ? ስለነዚህ አባባሎች ለማውጋት አይደለም። እንዲህ አይነቱን አባባሎች ለማጣጣልም አይደለም። ምሳሌያዊ አባባሎች መቼና በምን ሁኔታዎች የውሳኔ ምክንያት ይሆናሉ፥ መቼ እንደ መሪና መካሪ መቁጠር አለብን ወይስ ወግ የማሳመሪያ ውብ አባባሎች (የቋንቋ ቀለማት) ብቻ ናቸው? ጊዜ ያለፈባቸው፥ ብስባሽ ቅሪቶች ናቸው? ይህን ለሌላ ጊዜ እናቆየው።) ለእነዚህ ምጣኔሃብት ምሁሮች ግን፣ ዋጋው ተመሳሳይ ነው፣ ወይም መበላለጥ የለበትም።

Introduction

Ethiopia has been implementing justice reform programs for more than 15 years now.  This program is comprehensive and includes all the justice institutions at the federal and regional levels.  Within each institution, the reform program incorporates various components. 

ICT is used as an important tool to achieve many of the objectives set in the justice reform program.  Thus ICT is not seen as an end by itself but as a means to achieve other justice ends.  The ICT system was locally designed, implemented and expanded within this mindset.  The current system used by the courts is quite advanced but it reached this stage by responding to growing justice needs some of which were created by the new ICT system itself.

Housing forms an indispensable part of ensuring human dignity since it is essential for health, privacy and personal space, security and protection from inclement weather, and social space.  In this context, “adequate housing” en­compasses more than just the four walls of a room and a roof over one’s head.  However, population growth, migration to urban areas, conflicting needs for existing land, and insufficient financial and natural resources have resulted in widespread homelessness and habitation in inadequate housing. In every country children, men and women sleep on sidewalks, under bridges, in cars, subway stations, and public parks, live in ghettos and slums, or "squat" in buildings other people have abandoned. The United Nations estimates that there are over 100 million homeless people and over 1 billion people worldwide inadequately housed.

In Ethiopia, these problems are felt broadly and in depth throughout urban centers across the country due to various reasons. One major cause is the irregular pattern of urban growth leading to the emergence of slums’ and homelessness. This is especially true for the situation in Addis Ababa where housing is a serious problem in terms of availability and quality. According to one study,

-        75% of the total population of the city is living in overcrowded houses or dilapidated structures, under unhygienic conditions, lacking basic urban services like safe drinking water and sewage, and in sprawling informal settlements with growing number of shacks.

-        85% of the housing structures in Addis Ababa are dilapidated and would have to be demolished or rehabilitated in a costly manner. They are in their major without the minimum basic infrastructure such as flushing toilets and connection to the sewer system.

-        An estimated 80% of the 150,000 kebele houses have serious problems of maintenance and are in a very bad shape. Up to 50% of the population is without fixed employment.

የኢትዮጵያ የህግ ስርዓት በተለያዩ የመንግስት የአስተዳደር ስርዓት ውስጥ በልዩ ልዩ ጉዳዮች ላይ ልዩነቶች ሲታዩበት የነበረ ቢሆንም አደረጃጀቱም የዚያኑ ያክል ተለዋዋጭነት የነበረው መሆኑ ግልፅ ነው፡፡ በተለይም ከያዝነው ርዕስ ጋር በተያያዘ የፍርድ ቤቶች አደረጃጀትና በጉዳዮች ላይ የመጨረሻ ውሰኔ የመስጠት ሂደት በተለያዩ ስርዓቶች የተለያየ ሂደት ሲኖረው ተስተውሏል፡፡ ከ1980ዎቹ አጋማሽ በፊት የነበሩት ስርዓቶች የአህዳዊ ስርዓትን የሚከተሉ ከመሆናቸው አንፃር የፍርድ ቤቶች አደረጃጀት በዚሁ አይነት አተያይ የተቀረፀ ነበር፡፡

በዘውዳዊው ስርዓት የነበረውን የፍርድ ቤቶች አደረጃጀት ስናይ በተሻሻለው ህገ መንግስት አዋጅ ቁጥር 149/1948 ምዕራፍ  6 ስለ ዳኝነት በሚዘረዝረው ስር  አንቀፅ 108 እና አንቀፅ 109 ስር የዳኝነት ስልጣን በህግ ለተቋቋሙ ፍርድ ቤቶች የተሰጠ እንደሆነ እና የጠቅላይ የንጉሰ ነገስት ፍርድ ቤትና እንዲሁም በህግ እንደሚወሰን ወይም እንደሚፈቀደው ሌሎች ፍርድ ቤት እንደሚኖሩ ይደነግጋል፡፡ ከዚህ ድንጋጌ አንፃር በሐገሪቱ አንድ ማዕከላዊ ጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤት እንደሚኖርና ይህም በሐገሪቱ ለሚነሱ ጉዳዮች የመጨረሻ ውሳኔ እንደሚሰጥ እንዲሁም በ1966 ዓ.ም የተዘጋጀው የኢትዮጵያ ህገ መንግስት ረቂቅ አንቀፅ 120 መሰረት ጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤት የሐገሪቷ የመጨረሻ ፍርድ ቤት እንደሆነና ይህም ህገ መንግስትን ጭምር የመተርጎም ስልጣን እንዳለው ይደነግጋል፡፡ ከዚህም በተጨማሪ የይግባኝ ፍርድ ቤቶችና የመጀመሪያ ደረጃ ፍርድ ቤቶች እንደሚኖሩ አስቀምፀጧል፡፡

በሌላ በኩል የኢትዬጵያ ጊዜያዊ ወታደራዊ መንግስትን ለማቋቋም በወጣው አዋጅ ቁጥር 1/1967 ምዕራፍ 14 አንቀፅ 102 (1፣2) በህዝባዊ ዲሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊኩ የበላይ የዳኝነት አካል ጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤት እንደሆነና ይህም በሐገሪቱ ፍርድ ቤቶች ሁሉ የሚከናወኑ የዳኝነት ተግባሮች የመቆጣጠር ስልጣን ያለው መሆኑን ያስቀምጣል፡፡

ከእነዚህ  የሁለት ህገ መንግስት ድጋጌዎችና ጊዜያዊ ወታደራዊ መንግስትን ለማቋቋም ከወጣው አዋጅ ለመረዳት እንደሚቻለው በአህዳዊ ስርዓት ውስጥ አንድ የጠቅላይ ፍርድ ቤት እንደሚኖር እና ፍርድ ቤቱም የመጨረሻ ውሳኔ እንደሚሰጥ ያስረዳናል፡፡

Beginning in the early 1990s, Africa in general and the Greater Horn in particular, have been experiencing a major ground swell of social, economic, cultural and political changes. While the movement towards fundamental political change is remarkable, there are certain formidable challenges that will make the transition to a stable, democratic and pluralist system of governance very difficult. The cultural, historical, political and socioeconomic conditions of this troubled region are not simply too conducive to the emergence of strong democratic polity. This is indeed the context within which the legal empowerment of the poor has to be recognized. It is difficult to anticipate and legal protection of rights when from Darfur to Northern Uganda, from the Red Sea to the banks of the Zaire; genocidal marauders go left unchecked by the international community.

An array of declarations, communiqués and action programmers’, notwithstanding, the human development crisis and progress towards pluralism and the rule of law continues unabated. Massive militarization and persistent armed conflicts, economic crisis manifested by absolute poverty and a vicious socio-political environment, has rendered societies and polities one of the tragic scenes of present day human crisis, rendering whole populations chronically dependent on international food aid charity.

The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (HLCLEP) has been set-up as yet another attempt in the evolution of centers of excellence that seek to augur on new policy and strategic trajectories to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in a more radical way. Its core mission to “secure, enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to justice” is yet a novel attempt at bringing in marked changes in the fulfillment of sustainable livelihoods: a set of normative goals and an integrative concept which aims simultaneously to maintain or enhance resource productivity, secure their ownership of and access to assets, resources and income earning activities, and ensure adequate stocks and flows of goods and services. 

Download the concept Note here for further reading.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the key issues with regard rule of law in a narrower sense with the view and in comparable of rule of compromise in non-western societies where the latter focuses in African nation. The issues of Awramba’s is peculiar to this paper. Asserting that this phenomenon is replicable, the paper underpins the various arguments highlighting the incorporation extent of the rule of law on indigenous traditions under the broader umbrella of rule of compromise. Further, the paper addresses the necessity of reconciliation and restoration of harmony even in African continent when its children breach the laws than adjudicate by outsider’s law. In doing so, a little show on the Awramba’s experience of rule of compromise and its footages in promoting development and  stability will be reflected.

Introduction

Recently, due to the new politico-legal order in Ethiopia, the federative arrangement emphasizes cultural and legal pluralism and accommodates diversity in a plural democratic federal setting. Relegating the history of Ethiopian legal system before 1930’s, along with the enactment of the criminal code of 1930 and the proclamation of Administrative Justice of 1942, the state courts were established (shack et al 1966:163). The law adopted a foreign system of justice and borrowed many elements from western legal system (Abera 1998). This prevents the new law from conducting a serious investigation of local customary laws and safeguards the traditional values and thereby attaches the profound sentiments of the peoples with the code (Allott et al 1969:32). As Rene (1963:193) noted in his article that Ethiopia tends to modify its structures completely to the way of life of the people and consequently the citizens didn’t expect the new code to be a work of consolidation, the methodological and clear statement of actual customary rules, they wish it to be a program envisaging a total transformation of a society and they demand that for the most part of it set out new rules appropriate for the society they wish to create.

This essay attempts to address the undue focus on the lessened role of institutions on security issues while ignoring their (institutions) achievements in many other issue-areas so as to let them be conceived as weak instruments of international relations.Thomson and Snidal (1999), in their article International Organization have cited a lot of authorities witnessing that the application of institution has been expanded to a wide variety of issue-areas, including international security, trade, finance, telecommunications, and the environment. International legal scholars have also increasingly used institutions to better understand issues such as international trade laws, arms control agreements, and the law of treaties.

Problem of defining ‘institution’

One of the problems in this area is that scholars do not agree on the definition of the term institution. A widely adhered ‘standard’ definition by S. Krasner (1983) presents regimes/institutions as sets of implicit principles, norms, rules and decision making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations. However, scholars like Mearsheimer, in his article entitled false promise of international institutions do not agree on this definition. Even he mocks that Krasner’s definition lacks analytical bite. Strange (1982) has also criticized it as vague. They have, instead, provided their own definitions. Nevertheless, the way Krasner defines institutions enables us to assess the role of institutions in almost all walks of life. The definition makes up Regime Theory that premises: international politics is highly interdependent (Keohane and Nye, 1977) implying mutual interests in cooperation and (b) international behavior is institutionalized in a variety of ways (Ruggie, 1975).

Main scholars and theories said on the score

Mearsheimer (p.8) derisively wrote that institutionalists consider institutions to be a powerful force for stability. R. Keohane, for example, declares that, avoiding military conflict in Europe after the Cold War depends greatly on whether period is characterized by a continuous pattern of institutionalized cooperation. Commenting on the aftermath of the Soviet collapse and the end of the Cold War, John Ruggie maintains that there seems little doubt that multilateral norms and institutions have helped stabilize their international consequences. Indeed, such norms and institutions appear to be playing a significant role in the management of a broad array of regional and global changes in the world system today.

Yes it is conventional wisdom of corruption that the latter may be reduced with the expansion of rule based and more market oriented institutions. It is also widely accepted that the role of corruption, in part, has been contributive to economic growth in East Asia. Are these compatible? By way of explaining the role of corruption for distinctive economic accomplishment for a short period in East Asia; I will develop the essay showing that it is due to other factors/reasons and not because the East Asian states lacked the aforementioned institutions and rules to tackle corruption that it was widespread but, fortunately and unexpectedly (unintentionally – D. Kang, said it!), was to their economic growth.

Caution! By definition, corruption is inherently evil!

As we will discuss below, the fact that corruption in the history of some selected East Asian countries, at macro level, has facilitated their growth does not imply: a) it harms no one in the country b) some individuals have not gained undue advantage c) it can be officially adopted by a country as a viable economic growth model d) at micro level honest and law abiding businesspersons are not disadvantaged as their competitors enjoyed special treatment by the corrupt government officials.

There are several explanations why corruption has not affected their growth rather facilitated their economic performance.

According to Wedeman (P.3), although it is widely assumed that corruption has negative consequences, the fact remains that the Chinese economy, despite the existence of corruption, has performed remarkably well. Between 1979 and 2002 the Chinese economy outperformed the rest of the world by a factor of ten, with GDP growing 500.8 per cent in real per capita terms versus a global average of 44.6 per cent. According to Shliefer and Vishny, the negative consequences of hierarchically organized high-level corruption ought to be less than anarchic low-level corruption because high-level corruption is generally more predictable and hence reduces risk and transaction costs. If so, then the apparent contradiction between "worsening" corruption and China's extraordinarily high rate of growth might be, in part, a function of reductions in low-level corruption and the forging of a collusive relationship between high-ranking cadres and the emerging business community, wherein those with political power have material incentives to facilitate profit-making by their "business partners." (Wedeman, P.28)

Are Chinese aid, trade and investment considering regional and local political, economical and social situations? Or they are simply doing business in all areas in a similar fashion without considering varying local differences? Are they easily adaptive to existing environments? How about their life with he community they live? How about their aid to Africa – Ethiopia? Any conditions attached to their loans and aid?

Many argued that China was concerned not with disseminating ideologies rather it was determined to support Africa for the reason that they both belonged to the same group, colonized and of the third world entity.

China is not propagating the developing African countries to follow its ideology. This is one of the evidences not to say it is pursuing imperialism as imperialists want to see their values spread where ever they go. Rather, China is making business and establishing political, and cultural relationships taking respective nations values as it is and with out trying to impose its own but respecting its and others wide spread values, even it is not trying to sell developmental methods but leaving to respective countries to do so if they like and found it important to do so.

What is more, these developing countries believe they are benefiting. They are right as investment is more than aid and the former by far is advantaging than the latter. The imperialists were advancing their interest only.

As democracy and human rights require a reasonable degree of economic development, these African developing countries are as their infant stage of development. Naturally, one cannot expect human rights and democracies to spread easily. The decades long attempts are almost doomed to failure. So, may be China is right to ignore it and to follow its own route.

Hegemonic Stability theorists such as Robert Gilpin (cited in Friedberg, P.1) note that rapid changes are dangerous. Periods of accelerated economic and technological development typically result in dramatic shifts in the international distribution of military power, and these can raise the risks of misperception, mutual fears, miscalculation and confrontation.

International systems in which one state in particular is rising very rapidly are especially prone to upheaval. Friedberg reasoned out that swiftly ascending powers like China invariably challenge the legitimacy of treaties, territorial settlements and hierarchies of prestige and deference put in place when they were relatively weak. Neighboring countries see the situation as disruptive and threatening.

For K.N Waltz (pp. 881-909) and J. Mearsheimer (pp.13-18) along with many Realists, China’s rise is a threat as it is joining the multipolar system in which there are many strong states that make the region prone to instability. The end of the Cold War accelerates the emergence of a truly multipolar system, with a cluster of ‘big powers (including Japan, China, India, Russia and, to the extent that it remains engaged, the US) and an assortment of others with substantial wealth, technological competence and potential military power. If the realists are right, commented Friedberg (p.2), it may be difficult to achieve a stable, lasting peace in a multipolar Asia.

Some American activities in the East Asia region and their misperception (hence constructivism) against China shows American’s see China’s rise as a threat. As per D. Shambaugh (pp.52-79) and A.S. Whiting (pp. 596-615), the US is taking steps that many Chinese perceive to be aimed at containing their country’s rising power. These include intervening in the 1996 Taiwan Straight crisis, strengthening the alliance with Japan and discussing the possibility of developing a wide-ranging-theatre-missile-defence system. American decision makers regard these measures as defensive, and as response to increasing Chinese power and assertiveness. Chinese strategists see American actions as aggressive, and may well respond in ways that serve only to heighten American anxieties. The reason behind America’s actions and misperceptions is they see China’s rise as a threat.

Even from Democratic Peace theory perspective, the undemocratic China’s rise is considered a threat. Liberal, Constructivist and Realist explanations all lead us to this conclusion. The culture, perceptions, and practices that permit compromise and the peaceful resolution of conflicts without the threat of violence within countries come to apply across national boundaries toward other democratic countries. (Russet, p.31) China does not fulfill this criterion. Democratic states, each with perfect information about the other’s constraints, will always settle their conflicts short of war. (B de Mesqita and Lalman, in Russet p….) But, China cannot. Therefore, from both sides explanations perspective, undemocraticChina’s rise with no democratic behavior, with no information about itself is a menace.