Legal pluralism in Ethiopia: actors, challenges and solutions, eds. Susanne Epple and Getachew Assefa, Bielefeld, transcript Verlag, 2020, 414 pp., Series Culture and Social Practice, Print €50.00/$60, ISBN 978-3-8376-5021-1, PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-5021-5

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Notes

Notes

1 Each article is followed by an extensive reference list. The book as a whole is a treasure trove that could serve as one of the foundational texts for an African Law course.

2 The Mengistu regime modified the codes to accommodate socialist ideology; the EPRDF began a process of revision, repeal, and re-issue which continues today. Despite the modifications, the codes retain their European structure and identity as one of the central government’s tools for unification of Ethiopia.

3 Compare the United States, where such interests are protected by constitutional clauses guaranteeing due process, Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399 (1923), free exercise of religion, Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), and privacy, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 484 (1965).

4 Yitbarek (2020, 371, 373, 387–391). In rural Ethiopia the nearest school is often in a distant town; thus education of rural girls means removing them from home and sending them to a boarding school in that town.

5 Aberra (2020, 115, 127–129).

6 Epple 2020c, 205. As to unequal division of marital property, see Mohammed (2020, 139–162).

7 Infanticide is a global practice, Epple tells us, listing the many countries in which it occurs. Even some developed nations, such as China and India, tolerate the practice of terminating pregnancies when the foetus is found to be female (Epple 2020a, 339–342).

8 Epple has chosen to classify foeticide as a form of infanticide.

9 It is worth noting that the divisions and oppressions worked by modernization can occur even in homogenous nations, such as England during the Industrial Revolution.

10 Donovan (1997) 701–704, 719–731.