Legisprudential Evaluation of Ethiopian Criminal Law-Making

The state adopts criminal rules and punishment in order to achieve various state ends. There is very little agreement regarding the content of ‘good criminal law’. However, there is a general agreement regarding ‘good’ criminal lawmaking process. This article argues that the lawmaking process may be used to evaluate the legitimacy of the criminalisation process. Thus, it discusses pre-legislation, legislation and post-legislation phase duties of the legislature and finds that these processes were not complied with in various Ethiopian laws that contain penal provisions