CLC looks into constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia

Constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia is primarily the responsibility of the House of Federation, Ethiopia’s upper house. In line with this, the Community Law Centre’s Multi-Level Government Initiative (MLGI) and the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy hosted a discussion on "Constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia" on the Tuesday 2 September.

The discussion focused on the advantages and disadvantages of Ethiopia's unique system of dealing with constitutional adjudication in a federal context and shed light on some of the latest developments in constitutional adjudication in Ethiopia. Leading the discussion were Dr Assefa Fiseha, Dr Solomon Dersso, Prof Nico Steytler and Prof Jaap de Visser.

Dr. Assefa Fiseha is an Associate Professor of Federalism and Public Law in the Ethiopian Civil Service University (formerly) College. He earned his first degree in Law in 1995 from Addis Ababa University and his postgraduate degrees from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

He has served as a Dean and Director in the College and participated in many national and international seminars and conferences. His areas of interest are Comparative constitutional law, Federalism in a multi-ethnic context, Human Rights, Traditional Justice in Africa, Judiciary and constitutional adjudication. Dr Solomon Ayele Dersso is a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies.

Formerly a research fellow at the South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, International and Human Rights Law (SAIFAC), Dr Dersso completed his PhD degree from the School of Law University of Witwatersrand in 2009. One of the major areas of his research interest is constitutional design and institutional and policy mechanisms for accommodation of ethno-cultural diversity in Africa.

The discussion was attended by the University of the Western Cape scholars, Community Law Centre researchers as well as other staff. This event was part of a series of dialogues hosted by the SARChI Chair.