Coll 25/23 'Orders in Council: Ethiopia: Repeal of the Ethiopian Order in Council, 1934; Surrender of British Consular Jurisdiction' [‎4v] (8/552)

I fear* however* that there inust be a great aany
cases in whi'ch pressure is brought to beer upon the
Ethiopian judges, and of which I never h. ar*
With regard to the judges it is perhaps not
suf iciently rellized that they have no legal training,
and are quite ignorant of the ..ost elementary principles
of civil law end procedure* Cne at leas' of -he ii^h
Court judges cannot write and can herdly read, while
their ignorance of any lenguage but their own pre vents
theta from attempting to improve their legal knowledge*
With one notorious exception* who seems to enjoy Palace
favour, I have no evidence of corruption in the High
Court* but all the judges allow litigants to approach
them privately* and indeed it is quite usual to set a
judge arrive at Court hand in hand with a litigant*
It is difficult to teach them anything, for they
are quite content with the existing system and do not
think that they have anything to learn.
The judges ere underpaid and their position
confers no prestige, while the pay of the clerical staff
comperes unfavourably with that in oth'r Hinistries*
end there is undoubted corruption among them.
In the* provinces the judges ar* notoriously
corrupt, and the object of a provincial judge JLs to amass
as much money as he can, until he is removed and soaeone
else allowed to get a share of the loot. One of the chief
methods of/extortion, adopted by both judges and Governors
in the provinces, is to keep persons accused of crime, as
well as their relatives, in gaol without trial, and at
the same ti ae to seize their property. Unless a friend
or relative can bring the matter to the notice of the
High Court, the arrested persons remain in gads which
are little be iter*than death-traps, until the required
ransom is forthcoming.
' I can see little prospect of improvement in the
provinces until couuiiunications art opened by road.
With regard to the future of the High Court I
may point out that none of the recommendations in my
memorandum have been carried out; and, although H.i.• told
me recently that it was intended to build new Courts, I
think that in the present financial situation i hey will
remain un Chateau d’Eepagne.
In fact the building of new Coir ts in Addis Ababa
is a far lees urgent matter then the repair or- rebuilding
of provincial Courts, and an increase oi pay for interpreters
and translators, which will enable us to engage competent
men.
tiy impression is that promises by H.1.1., or by the
Minister of Justice, mean very little, ^xtra-territoriality
and Consular Courts having been abolished by a stroke of
the pen, instead of in stages as a reward of improvement;
as was the case in Siam, there is little incentive to
/remedy.