Browsing by Author "Mulatu, Kassahun"

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    The Place and Relevance of Public Interest Litigation in Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2017) Mulatu, Kassahun; Assefa, Getachew(Associate professor)
    Similar to the need for a democratic constitution and modern laws, the realization of effective access to justice holds an indispensable place. Without effective means of redressing injustices, constitutionalism and rule of law are unattainable and citizen’s rights recognized by the Constitution will be a mere wish. However, effectively realized access to justice serves as a means to enforce rights and deter unlawfulness. A country having liberal rules of standing for enforcing constitutional rights has more enhanced public participation in ensuring the observance of laws. To the reverse jurisdiction having strict procedural rules of standing will unreasonably prevent citizens from protecting the Constitution and other laws. Even though its level of implementation and the subject matter it involves differ across the world, Public interest litigation, which is the result of liberal rules of standing, has been successfully utilized to vindicate public interests using law and judicial bodies. It has shown significant achievements in countries like USA, India and South Africa for realizing justice mainly to those who are unable to access justice due to various forms of barriers and disabilities. Though PIL is not familiar with the Ethiopian legal system, there are some few subsidiary laws in the country which expressly provide for broad rules of locus standi for instituting proceeding. However, even though the need for PIL is undeniable, the PIL experience of our country is near to none. The constitutional space of PIL in Ethiopia is one of a constitutional issue surrounded by controversial arguments of legal scholars. Therefore, the study has attempted to thoroughly examine the constitutional place of public interest litigation in Ethiopia by indicating its relevance if adequately introduced into the country’s legal system. The study has also identified some of the main problems attributed to the weak practice of PIL in the country’s legal system. Basing on the gaps and problems identified by the study, relevant recommendations are provided.
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    Resolution of Construction Disputes through Institutional Arbitration in Ethiopia: The Practice and Legal Challenges.
    (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2020) Mulatu, Kassahun; Teshome, Tilahun (Assistant Professo)
    Construction is a large, dynamic, complex and a very vital sector of economy in many countries. The industry has started to play a vital role for developing countries as they are considerably dependent on the growth and development of physical infrastructures. Similarly, the sector is a corner stone of the economy for Ethiopia. The complex nature of the construction industry and the existence of various players in the sector such as owners, suppliers, financiers, designers, contractors, consultants, employer representatives, sub contractors and other sector actors have made disputes in the industry normal and sometimes inevitable. Furthermore the sector transactions and disputes have peculiar features than any other sectors of commercial business. The sector transaction and dispute involve larger amount of money having multiple interested parties with independent contractual relationships and multiple claims and contain large volume of documents. Due to the inevitability of dispute in the sector, crafting an appropriate mechanism of dispute resolution has been considered as a significant task. The resolutions of the construction sector dispute mainly require skilled and experienced expertise and demand rapid resolution of disputes for the success of a project. A judge who is trained only in law without having the required knowledge and experience of construction sector works will not be able to understand the technically complex disputes of the sector. Moreover, resolving disputes occurring in the construction sector in time, swiftly and professionally contributes for the successful completion of projects with allocated budget, time and quality. Due to this various alternatives and on site dispute resolution mechanisms such as Dispute resolution advisor, Dispute review board, Dispute adjudication board, negotiation and arbitration are in place in different parts of the world to ensure justice and efficiency in resolving the sector specific disputes. At international level arbitration is highly advocated as the most efficient means of dispute resolution for construction disputes than the formal adjudication system. To assess the practice and challenges of construction dispute arbitration of institutional arbitration centers in Ethiopia, both legal framework and the institutional practice of Arbitration centers are analyzed by the study. However, in Ethiopia the practice of institutional arbitration is not considerable and well developed and the existing arbitration laws are not also comprehensive to fit the rapidly growing construction sector business and associated disputes. Therefore, enacting comprehensive legal framework, policies and establishing strong arbitration centers which serve the country and the rest of the world is suggested as major recommendation.