Criminal Law and Capital Punishment in Federal Ethiopia; the Case of Oromia and SNNPRS

Gizaw, Yadeta (2015) Criminal Law and Capital Punishment in Federal Ethiopia; the Case of Oromia and SNNPRS. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

The thesis looks in to criminal laws and death penalty powers of the regional states in Ethiopia; the case of Oromia and SNNPR State. Principally, the FDRE Constitution has established ethnic based selfgoverning federal arrangement and incorporates division of Legislative, executive and judicial powers with dual Government structure. This federal arrangement has one major goal, providing the various ethno-national groups - 'Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' - of Ethiopia with the power to govern themselves through self rule and shared rule. Although the constitutional principles and the federal arrangement exemplify such features, the criminal laws power is centralize. Based on this, the main issue addressed in this paper is as whether the regional states are exercising criminal laws legislative, adjudicative and implementation power in general and death penalty in particular. To test this, the writer used descriptive and analytical qualitative technique. Primary data were collected from key informants through interview. Countries constitutions, legal documents and other relevant documents were also used as secondary data. The writer after making serious analysis has reached the Following findings: In the federal arrangement substantive criminal law legislative power is vested with both the federal and Regional States. The regional states power is limited only to matters not specifically covered by federal criminal code or laws. Criminal procedural law legislative power is reserved as residual power for the regional states, however the Federal legislative organ exhaustively define all criminal matters leaving almost no rooms for the regional states and take away the Regional states power and enacted centralized criminal code and laws. Following centralized federal criminal code, normatively speaking criminal laws adjudication and implementation power is also centralized. It is only the federal court and federal criminal law enforcing agencies establishment proclamations that sufficiently define their criminal jurisdiction while the regional states courts and criminal enforcing agencies have no sufficient laws which determine their criminal jurisdiction. However practically criminal laws adjudication and implementation is decentralized, as a result Oromia and SNNPR state courts assume residual criminal jurisdiction. With respect to death penalty implementation the issue is treated differently, although regional states are adjudicating capital crimes, the implementation of death penalty requires the blessing of the central government. It cannot be executed, pardoned or commuted unless the head of the state sign it. Based on the findings, the writer come up with the conclusion that for the real implementation of federalism in criminal justice system, the Federal criminal code should be amended and regional states should exercise their power to determine their own matters by themselves and as such determine state nature crimes and corresponding penalties to adjudicate and implement by themselves.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Emmanuel Ndorimana
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2018 08:33
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2018 08:33
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/4575

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