The Role of Judiciary In Developmental States: Prospects and Challenges in Ethiopia
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Date
2015-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is a long time and boldly held view that a judiciary characterized by independence and accountability is
important in constitutional democracies. The judiciary has also generally been one subject matter of
discussion in literatures about law and development. It had been regarded as mere instruments of
powerful bureaucracies of classical developmental states to suggest that courts did not enjoy autonomy
as a separate and third branch of government in developmental states of second half of the twentieth
century. The experiences of successful North East Asian developmental states, however demonstrate that
legal institutions including courts can play some important roles for the success of developmental states.
Despite the authoritarian nature of their regimes, courts in Japan and South Korean developmental state
for instance contributed to their success through; Enhancing efficiency of their bureaucracies, creating
economic predictability for the private sector, securing security and order, and socialization of
development policies. Ethiopia has declared to pursue democratic developmental state model of
development with the aim to facilitate development and deepening democracy. Different challenges with
regard to the independence and efficiency of the judiciary and their impact in promoting
constitutionalism and democratic governance in Ethiopia are identified by different studies. However,
owing to recent emergence of the developmental state discourse, the role of the judiciary for
achievements of goals of the developmental state in Ethiopia is not explored. This paper is aimed at
filling the gap in that regard. After reviewing literatures on the concept, aims, kinds of developmental
states and their varying institutional features and the functions of the judiciary in different forms of
governance and development strategies, this paper explores the experiences of three foreign
developmental states to draw lessons.. The paper shows that there are opportunities that the judiciary in
Ethiopia can contribute some important roles for the success of democratic developmental state. It can
help the state in securing stability and order, enhancing efficient and good governance, promoting
economic predictability and consolidating political capacity of development oriented political leadership,
all necessary elements for democratic developmental state to be successful. The paper also argues that
in spite of some prospects for the judiciary to contribute its share in the context of democratic
developmental state, there are some major challenges which can hinder its contributions; non-judicial
constitutional review, developmental political settlement related problems, absence of comprehensive
administrative procedural act, poor working conditions of judges, limited accessibility to judicial
proceeding and remedies, and low public perception on the judiciary are the different challenges which
this paper argues need attention and remedial action.
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Keywords
Judiciary In Developmental States,constitutional democracies