Ethiopia

• The Constitution of 1995, the highest law
• Codes and proclamations, such as the Civil Code of 1960 and the Criminal Code
• Decisions of the Federal Supreme Court's cassation bench, which bind all courts
• Customary and religious law (including Islamic law) for personal and family matters, where the parties choose them

• The Federal Supreme Court, with a Cassation Division whose decisions bind all courts
• Federal high courts and federal courts of first instance, plus separate regional courts
• Sharia courts for Muslim family matters, and customary dispute resolution

A law degree, then a licence to practise from the competent authorities.

• The House of Federation, a political body of the regions, interprets the Constitution, not the courts.
• Cassation decisions of the Federal Supreme Court are binding precedent, which is unusual in a civil-law country.
• The federal system gives each region its own courts and legal powers.
• The 1960 Civil Code was written by a foreign expert, René David, on a mixed European model.

France, Kenya, Egypt, Italy, Tanzania

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Ethiopia as: Civil law, Customary. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• NYU GlobaLex: Introduction to the Ethiopian Legal System

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.