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* SJD candidate, Central European University (Budapest, Hungary); assistant lecturer, Addis Ababa University, School of Law (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia). Email:
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. The author wishes to express his gratitude to Muradu Abdo, Abdulatif Khedir, Yenehun Mamo, Tsegaye Regassa and Yared Legesse for their invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this article. Naturally, the author, and not these gentlemen, bears responsibility for any error or opinion in it.
INTRODUCTION
In the constitutional history of modern Ethiopia, no constitution has survived its authors. Since 1930, three constitutions have been officially promulgated, in addition to the current constitution. None of these constitutions has survived its authors. The 1931 and the "1955 revised" imperial constitutions did not survive the emperor who was their political sponsor and author.1The same fate awaited the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) Constitution.2Naturally, we have to wonder if the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution is going to face the same end.3More than one and a half decades after the adoption of the FDRE Constitution, it may now be possible to venture a reasonable guess as to whether or not this constitution will survive the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).4
This article will first explore the notion of legitimacy in relation to constitutions. This is followed by the argument that the FDRE Constitution suffers from a severe legitimacy crisis and as a result is unlikely to survive its authors. The third part of the article will argue that the current constitution should survive its authors and be retained even after the end of EPRDF's hegemony. Finally, the author will make some suggestions regarding the constitutional reform that should be undertaken to overcome the FDRE Constitution's legitimacy crisis. If successful, such reforms would enable the FDRE Constitution to serve as the foundation for a truly democratic Ethiopia.
EXPLORING THE NOTION OF LEGITIMACY
The notion of legitimacy can be understood in various ways. The "legitimacy" of a constitution can refer to different things. Fallon makes a distinction between three different senses in which the notion could be used.5He argues that a constitution could have sociological legitimacy, legal legitimacy and moral legitimacy.6Although there could be an...