1,720,957 research outputs found
Urban land acquisition and social justice in Ethiopia
No full textAs urban land could be used for manifold purposes, urban residents look for such land enthusiastically to serve their enormously diverse interests. Thus, urban land use laws and policies should be flexible, apt and transparent to respond to such various and complex land demands. An inflexible form of land transfer and management system may drive some section of the society out of the land deal and an extremely flexible urban land permission and use system could result in a pervasive corruption and that in turn could lead to bad governance. In this work, the author argues that the existing urban land acquisition system of Ethiopia has resulted in social injustice by denying the poor from access to urban land; and creating discriminatory environment while enforcing the new lease system
Urban land acquisition and social justice in Ethiopia
Get PDFAs urban land could be used for manifold purposes, urban residents look for such land enthusiastically to serve their enormously diverse interests. Thus, urban land use laws and policies should be flexible, apt and transparent to respond to such various and complex land demands. An inflexible form of land transfer and management system may drive some section of the society out of the land deal and an extremely flexible urban land permission and use system could result in a pervasive corruption and that in turn could lead to bad governance. In this work, the author argues that the existing urban land acquisition system of Ethiopia has resulted in social injustice by denying the poor from access to urban land; and creating discriminatory environment while enforcing the new lease system.Keywords: access to land, land lease, social justice, tenure security, urban land polic
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Non-Judicial Constitutional Review and the Rule of Law The Case of Ethiopia
No full textMost democracies have embraced the principle of constitutional supremacy and use the institution of constitutional review to maintain it. However, enforcing the rule of law as expressed in the constitution against political power has remained controversial. Central to this controversy is the alleged conflict between constitutional review and democracy, or what Bickel calls the counter-majoritarian difficulty with allowing unelected judges to set aside legislation. This has prompted diverging views. Some subscribe to this alleged conflict but justify constitutional review on grounds other than democracy. For others like Waldron, the courts having the power to strike down legislation is not only undemocratic but also intolerable. The solution according to them is political constitutionalism (determining constitutional controversies through majoritarianism) instead of legal constitutionalism (subjecting political power to constitutional limits). In contrast, Dworkin and his followers’ definition of democracy embraces rights, and hence enforcement of such rights through constitutional review constitutes a democratic exercise. The arguments for and against constitutional review are essentially reflections of strong and weak models of constitutional review in a real-world situation. In strong forms of review, the final say on constitutional matters belongs to the courts, and in weak forms to the legislature. There is an exception to this dichotomy, however: the Ethiopian model of non-judicial review where neither the country’s apex court nor the legislature have the ultimate authority on constitutional matters. It is the non-legislative upper house, which is known as the House of Federation, that decides constitutional disputes in Ethiopia. This thesis explores whether such a politically leaning constitutional review is a viable alternative. Drawing on Ethiopia’s experience and the views of leading thinkers on constitutional review, this thesis presents a case against politically oriented constitutional review and, for a stronger reason, political constitutionalism. By explaining why Ethiopia’s House of Federation is an inherently political institution and how this has impacted the rule of law in the country, the thesis highlights limitations with political constitutionalism. It argues that democracy embraces both legal (constitutional) and majoritarian (political) elements. Its constitutional element embodies the implied or express agreement of the people as a political community and should thus be superior to the political element so governance can be characterised as people rule. This distinguishes the constitution which is ideally an expression of the people’s constituent power (to create or fundamentally alter the constitution) from decisions produced by constituted power, including legislative power. For the constitution to remain superior to the majority, and to make governance attributable to everyone (the people), it should be enforced through an open and insulated institution. Constitutional review should thus be accessible and ideologically and structurally fit to uphold the rule of law (constitutionalism). This responsibility includes upholding constitutional rights and principles of political organisation, like federalism, that a constitutional system embraces. This thesis examines Ethiopia’s non-judicial review through the lens of these constitutional values. Due to its political nature, Ethiopia’s form of review has profound limitations in this regard. This thesis concludes that Ethiopia’s politically oriented constitutional review and political constitutionalism constitute assailable constitutionalism, as majority votes on constitutional controversies are more reflections of political views than outcomes of a sober analysis of the constitution. Ethiopia’s House of Federation’s experience, as will be elaborated in Chapter 5, attests to this. It highlights how political constitutionalism could contradict the very purpose of constitutional review, which is controlling political power through the constitution. Based on identified theoretical and practical limitations with political institutions as constitutional review mechanisms, this thesis calls for their reform.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Adelaide Law School, 202
Federalism as an Instrument for Unity and the Protection of Minorities: A Comparative Overview: Ethiopia, India and the US
Get PDFAccommodation of differences is used by federal systems to hold their units together. Lack of accommodation of diversity could lead to conflicts and pose danger for a union, particularly, in multicultural federal systems like Ethiopia. This article explores the protection of diverse groups and preservation of a union in federal systems. It involves a comparative overview of three jurisdictions: Ethiopia, India and the US. Although comprehensive discussion on the relevant principles of federalism across these federal systems cannot be done in a single article, an investigation into the three jurisdictions gives insight as these jurisdictions demonstrate substantially different federal features while they share some of the hallmarks of federalism. The US represents a territorial federal system. Indian federation is multicultural with unique centripetal tendencies and this would make it a quasi-federal system. The Ethiopian federal system, on the other hand, appears to empower ethnic groups by making them its building blocks. This article examines the accommodation of diversity and protection of minorities in such differently designed federal systems and aims at drawing relevant lessons. Key termsFederalism, unity, representation of minorities, ethnic federalis
COVID-19 and elections in Ethiopia: exploring constitutional interpretation by the House of the Federation as an exit strategy
Get PDFOver 60 countries have postponed their elections due to COVID-19. As an election is the primary means by which government power is assumed in constitutional democracies, the postponement of elections has posed this question: what exit mechanisms do constitutional systems have to address a power vacuum caused by unforeseen circumstances like COVID-19? In other words, how can a legitimate government that adheres to the rule of law, a constitution more specifically, be ensured when elections cannot be held? While some countries held elections amid COVID-19 with precautions, others postponed them. Ethiopia is one of those countries which have postponed their elections. The postponement of Ethiopia’s general elections sparked a debate about how the power vacuum caused by the pandemic should be addressed. After deliberating on the matter, Ethiopia’s lower house approved constitutional interpretation by the upper house as the best solution. The upper house, through interpreting the Constitution, extended the term limits of the federal and regional governments. This article intends to address the question posed above by examining constitutional interpretation by the upper house as an exit strategy. It explores constitutional interpretation by this house and its implications for the rule of law and legitimacy of government. I conclude that comprehensive understanding of the Constitution offers an answer to the conundrum. The upper house has adopted a holistic interpretation approach and that is commendable. However, the ruling that allows the government to stay in power for an unknown time and the partiality inherent in the house compromise the merit of its interpretation
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Federalism as an Instrument for Unity and the Protection of Minorities: A Comparative Overview: Ethiopia, India and the US
No full textAppropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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