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1931 Constitution of Ethiopia
The 1931 Constitution of Ethiopia was the first modern constitution for Ethiopia, intended to officially replace the ''Fetha Negest'', which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages. It was promulgated in "an impressive ceremony" held 16 July 1931 in the presence of Emperor Haile Selassie, who had long desired to proclaim one for his country.〔Harold G. Marcus, ''Haile Sellassie I: The Formative Years'' (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1996), pp. 116f〕 In the preface to his translation of this constitution into English, William Stern writes, "It is worthy of note that this was the first instance in history where an absolute ruler had sought voluntarily to share sovereign power with the subjects of his realm."〔Stern, (''The Ethiopian Constitution'' ) (Washington: Ethiopian Research Council, 1936). Besides Stern's pamphlet, an English translation of this document can be found in Margary Perham, ''The Government of Ethiopia'', second edition (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), pp. 423-432〕
== Origins and creation ==
According to his own autobiography, while still Regent Haile Selassie had wanted Empress Zawditu to proclaim such a document, but "some of the great nobles, to whose advantage it was to rule the country without a constitution, had pretended that it would diminish the dignity and authority of Queen Zawditu if a constitution were set up."〔Haile Selassie, ''My Life and Ethiopia's Progress: The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Sellassie I,'' translated by Edward Ullendorff (Chicago: Frontline Distribution, 1999), vol. 1 p. 178〕 Once he became Emperor, Haile Selassie then appointed a commission to draft the document. The commission's leading members included the Europeans Gaston Jèze and Johannes Kolmodin, but most prominently Ethiopian intellectuals such as Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam and Gedamu Woldegiorgis.〔
This constitution was based on the Meiji Constitution of Japan, a country that educated Ethiopians considered a model for its successful adoption of Western learning and technology to the framework of a non-Western culture.〔Bahru Zewde, ''A History of Modern Ethiopia: 1855-1991'', second edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 110〕 Unlike its Japanese model, the Ethiopian Constitution was a simple document of 55 articles arranged in seven chapters.〔Keller, ''Revolutionary Ethiopia'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 69〕 It asserted the Emperor's own status, reserved imperial succession to the line of Haile Selassie, and declared that "the person of the Emperor is sacred, his dignity inviolable, and his power indisputable." All power over central and local government, the legislature, the judiciary, and the military was vested in the emperor. The constitution was essentially an effort to provide a legal basis for replacing the traditional provincial rulers with appointees loyal to the emperor. It was not intended to be a representative democracy, as the Emperor alone had the power to designate senators.
According to Haile Selassie, the importance of this legal innovation was not understood "on the side of the officials and the people". To educate them on constitutional theory, he called the leading members of both groups to an assembly where its principal author, Tekle Hawariat, delivered a lengthy speech which not only described the contents of the document, but expounded a theory of constitutional law.〔Summarized in ''My Life and Ethiopia's Progress'', vol. 1 pp. 185-200〕
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