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IOWA LAW REVIEW
be separate law for a strong minority group in matters that are considered
by them to be religious in nature.
This question has not yet been resolved. While the Penal Code of
1957 prohibits bigamy, it also provides that bigamy shall not be an
offense if the civil law provides an exception. 17 No such exception
is contained in the Civil Code, which voids bigamous marriages. 218
However, to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a prosecution
against a Moslem for bigamy, and those persons that practice
plural marriage do so openly. It can also be argued that the Civil Code,
which contains no provisions applicable to Moslems, inpliedly repealed
the jurisdiction of the Moslem courts. Since the Civil Code repeals
all other law and the law is to be uniform throughout the Empire,
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0 the argument is that Mohammedan law is no longer recognized
and the jurisdiction of courts to apply such law is repealed. The alternative
argument is that since such courts were in existence and
were applying Mohammedan law, the Civil Code, which makes no
reference to courts, was not intended to abolish their jurisdiction in
cases assigned to them by existing law. Subsequent laws, however,
dealing with the courts and their jurisdiction have made no reference
to the Moslem courts.
These courts continue to function. It is reported that shortly after
the promulgation of the Civil Code, the Minister of Justice by circular
instructed the courts to continue to exercise their jurisdiction under
the 1944 Proclamation, applying Mohammedan law. Indeed, the
Sharia Court of Appeal now sits as a division of the Supreme Imperial
Court. On the other hand, if the intention were that these courts
remain a permanent part of the judicial system, new legislation to
that effect would have been promulgated. But none has been. It is
obvious that Ethiopia has not come to grips with the question of
separate law for the Moslem population in these matters. The failure
to do so appears to be deliberate and despite the resulting ambiguity
and uncertainty, this was desirable.
As was seen earlier, the desire for a uniform law is strong. Separate
laws, even in limited cases, encourage divisiveness. On the other hand,
the matters governed by religious law are vitally important to the
Moslem population. Any effort to bind them by a uniform law based
in part on "Christian values" would be strongly resisted and could
cause a serious upheaval. Perhaps the fact that they are a minority
makes their religious law more important to them than in a country
such as the Sudan where they are in the majority. In any event, it
217 ETH. PEN. CODE arts. 616, 617.
2 1 SETH. CirV. CODE art. 585.
210 See id. art. 3347.