Comparative analysis of the contents and structures of the ethiopian civil code vis-à-vis the major european codes

A civil code is a systematic collection of laws designed to deal with the core areas of private law such as property, family, contracts, torts, unlawful enrichment and business related lawsuits and practices. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdictions with a civil code, a number of the core areas of private law that would otherwise typically be codified in a civil code may instead be codified in a commercial code. A typical civil code deals with the fields of law known to the common lawyer as law of contracts, torts, property law, family law and the law of inheritance. Commercial law, corporate law and civil procedure are usually codified separately. The writer is fully convinced that the comparative study of the law, as among the legal systems, is an effective means of learning about other legal cultures and, in due course, improving one’s own legal system. This is the case however without concealing the fact that such studies require juristic caliber and attentive care in order not to run in to hasty generalizations in the world of legal pluralism. It is in this context that the writer has decide to the comparatively analyze the various attributes of the Ethiopian civil code vis-à-vis the two major European codes- the French civil code (also called code Napoleon) and German civil code of 1907.