Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1966
ISSN
0022-0914
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Language
en-gb
Abstract
The Criminal Procedure Code of 1961 is one of Ethiopia's most recent codes, and one of the least "developed" in terms of published commentary and reported cases. In contrast to the "introduced" and "explained" Penal and Civil Codes, the Criminal Procedure Code has apparently been disowned by its drafters, none of whom have written a word of commentary on it. Its origins remain obscure, and at first glance it is difficult to see which, if any, "system" was its inspiration. In fact, it seems, the Code has roots in no single system, nor even in any single "family" of systems. Rather, it is the product par excellence of an eclectic approach to codification, more than any other Ethiopian code. The importance of this fact is magnified by the consideration that in adjective law even more than in substantive law, it is extremely hazardous to construct a code eclectically, borrowing across the boundaries which divide one legal family from another. The danger is that confusion and inconsistencies will result from mixing in one code of concepts and procedures strange to each other. In this writer's view, precisely this has happened in some parts of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Recommended Citation
Stanley Z. Fisher,
Some Aspects of Ethiopian Arrest Law: The Eclectic Approach to Codification
,
in
3
Journal of Ethiopian Law
463
(1966).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1066
