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LEGAL SYSTEM OF ETHIOPIA
published most of the Imperial Laws in Amharic and French. It was superseded in 1942 by the current of ficial Law Reporter entitled Negarit Gazeta which is published in Amharic and English. The present lan guage of instruction in the secondary schools and at the university level, including the Faculty of Law, ·is English. Thus, English today is a well established second language in Ethiopia with a quasi-official status. Accordingly, a foreigner who speaks English can do research in modern Ethiopian law subject to this caveat: If th�re is a conflict between the Amharic and the English version of the same law, the English translation must yield to the official Amharic text. A few examples of such conflicts, which in fact do exist, would be: (1) Article 52 of the Constitution guarantees the accused in the official Amharic text "a speedy and public trial," whereas in the English translation he is given only a "public trial"; (2) Article 772 of the Civil Code limits a filiation action to the child in the 'English translation, where as in the governing Amharic text the proceeding may be brought by either the mother or the child; (3) The Amharic version of Article 84 (2) of the Commercial Code states that for tax purposes a merchant's inventory is based upon "actual market price" while the English version speaks of "cost price"; (4) Under Article 51 of the Constitution in Am ·haric an arrest without a warrant may take place only where the offender is "found committing a seri ous offense in violation of Law" but in the English translation it may be done when there is a "flagrant or serious violation of law."