“The provisions relating to the law on a given subject matter are often found in a series of Acts. As a consequence, investigation of the law on a given subject requires simultaneous reference to a number of separate Acts. This problem can be solved by a re-enactment of the scattered provisions into one Act Consolidation is thus the process whereby several Acts of Parliament are brought together in a single, comprehensive Act.
Consolidation is a process of combining the legislative provisions on a single topic into one coherent enactment. The earlier Acts of Parliament are repealed. In their place is substituted a single Act which embraces the subject matter of the earlier Acts. The aim of consolidation is to allow for easy access to a particular subject matter on which there would have been numerous amendments to the law at different times.”
(V. C. R. A. C. CRABBE, Legislative Drafting, P185)
“….important development in the history of legislations in Ethiopia is the Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia. The purpose of the project of the Consolidated Laws “is to provide a useful source and reference work on the laws of Ethiopia”. The Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia initially contained laws which were, in effect, included at the end of the Ethiopian year 1961 (September 10, 1969). A supplement was issued in 1975 in which were included as laws which were, in effect, proclaimed at the end of the Ethiopian year 1965 (September 10, 1973). Since then, no supplement has been issued. Besides, the Consolidated Laws “contains numerous tables. And other means of assisting the user to find the legal provisions he is searching for”.17 This important work was begun by the former Institute of Public Administration of the Ethiopian Government but was later on turned over to the Faculty of Law of the Haile Selassie I University (now the Addis Ababa University). The work was completed in October by Mr. William H. Ewing, who was a member of the staff of the Faculty of Law and the project’s head. The other laws and regulations relating to Addis Ababa appeared in the Consolidated Legislations of Addis Ababa”
(Sileshi Zeyohannes and Fanaye G/Hiwot, Legislative Drafting Teaching Material [Sponsored by the Justice and Legal System Research Institute] P25-26)
Volume I and II of the consolidated laws are now available. (Unfortunately only the Amharic version is available)
Due to the size of the file, I split up Volume one in to five parts.
I will upload Volume two in my next post.
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