This thesis provides a new approach to the Ethiopian Land Law debate. The basic argument made in this thesis is that even if the Ethiopian Constitution provides and guarantees common ownership of land (together with the state) to the people, this right has not been fully realized whether in terms of land accessibility, enjoyability, and payment of fair compensation in the event of expropriation. Expropriation is an inherent power of the state to acquire land for public purpose activities. It is an important development tool in a country such as Ethiopia where expropriation remains the only method to acquire land. Furthermore, the two preconditions of payment of fair compensation and existence of public purpose justifications are not strictly followed in Ethiopia. The state remains the sole beneficiary of the process by capturing the full profit of land value, while paying inadequate compensation to those who cede their land by expropriation. Secondly, the broader public purpose power of the state in expropriating the land for unlimited activities puts the property owners under imminent risk of expropriation.

Abstract: This paper provides evidence from one of the poorest countries of the world that the property rights matter for efficiency, investment, and growth. With all land state-owned, the threat of land redistribution never appears far off the agenda. Land rental and leasing have been made legal, but transfer rights remain restricted and the perception of continuing tenure insecurity remains quite strong. Using a unique panel data set, this study investigates whether transfer rights and tenure insecurity affect household investment decisions, focusing on trees and shrubs. The panel data estimates suggest that limited perceived transfer rights, and the threat of expropriation, negatively affect long-term investment in Ethiopian agriculture, contributing to the low returns from land and perpetuating low growth and poverty.

This study traces three different land tenure systems in Ethiopia and Eritrea over a 30-year period from the end of Italian occupation to the end of imperial rule. It examines existing theories of changing property rights in the context of the developing world, and should interest NGOs.

This paper provides evidence from one of the poorest countries of the world that the property rights matter for efficiency, investment, and growth. With all land state-owned, the threat of land redistribution never appears far off the agenda. Land rental and leasing have been made legal, but transfer rights remain restricted and the perception of continuing tenure insecurity remains quite strong. Using a unique panel data set, this study investigates whether transfer rights and tenure insecurity affect household investment decisions, focusing on trees and shrubs. The panel data estimates suggest that limited perceived transfer rights, and the threat of expropriation, negatively affect long-term investment in Ethiopian agriculture, contributing to the low returns from land and perpetuating low growth and poverty.

This edited volume on Implementation of International Human Rights Commitments and Implications on Ongoing Legal Reforms in Ethiopiaaddresses key themes of contemporary interest focused on identifying the gaps between Ethiopia's human rights commitments and the practical problems associated with the realisation of human rights goals. Political and legal challenges affecting implementation at the domestic levels continue in Ethiopian - the nature and complexity of which have been thoroughly expounded in this volume. This edition uncovers the key challenges involving civil and political rights, socio-economic rights and cultural and institutional dimensions of the implementation of human rights in Ethiopia - while the country is absorbed in legal and political reforms.

Land rights in general, and transferability of land rights in particular, have been a mind boggling subject for intellectuals, donors, and politicians in Ethiopia. The question of land and the rights attached to it has been a cause for political turbulence and instability in the nation as well. It is important to study the challenges of land policies pursued by successive regimes and the historical evolutionary course leading to the current land policy. The deadlocks on land policy issues in Ethiopia might superficially seem to hinge on preferences of which land governance system or legal regime must the nation adopt or adapt. However, land issues in Ethiopia are more than economic factors or principles of efficiency and preference of ownership systems. This book explores the limitations of the current land system in Ethiopia, by assessing and analyzing the laws and policies pertaining to land and transferability of rights over land. This includes an evaluation of existing legislation against the background of the history of land use in Ethiopia and ensuing political struggles. Contents include: History of Land Tenures in Ethiopia * The Current Legal Regimes of Land Governance in Ethiopia * Tensions between de jure and de facto Transfer of Land Rights in Ethiopia: Informal Land Deals vs. the Command of the Statute Laws * Land Reform Policy and Laws in Ethiopia: Towards Responsible Land Governance * Land Governance and Human Rights in Ethiopia * Land Governance and Environmental Protection in Ethiopia * Land Policy Options. *** Librarians: ebook available on ProQuest and EBSCO [Subject: Environmental Law, Property Law, Human Rights Law, Politics, African Studies]

Traditional theories of property rights change have posited an evolutionary progression of property rights towards private property in response to changes in the relative price ratio of land compared to the other factors of production. Using case studies from two areas of Ethiopia and one area of Eritrea the dissertation demonstrates the role of political factors such as interest group preference and state intervention in directing property rights development away from a linear path. The case studies trace the development of three separate systems of property rights throughout the twentieth century up to the Ethiopian revolution of 1974. Analysis of history and litigation in the three areas demonstrates that in none did property rights evolve spontaneously towards privatization. In one area of the study relative price changes did not lead to changes in the system of property rights as the theory predicts. In the other two areas, changes in property rights followed a change in the relative price of land, but these changes were brought about exogenously, by the intervention of the government or interest groups in guiding property rights in a particular direction. There are two theoretical conclusions to the study 1) property rights development does not always occur when we expect it to, other factors such as vested interests and government reluctance can intervene with their development and 2) even if property rights do change in response to relative price changes, they may not always move towards privatization or greater specification. In addition, one interesting empirical result of the research was that in communal systems of land tenure the transaction costs of land transfer are higher, leading to a drag on economic efficiency in the overall economy of the region. Generally, the incorporation of political factors into the model of changing property rights leads to a less parsimonious, but more accurate description of the progression of land rights in developing countries in particular.