PROCLAMATION No. 165 of 1960 THE CIVIL CODE PROCLAMATION OF 1980

CONQUERING LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH

HAILE SELASSIE I

ELECT OF GOD, EMPEROR OF ETHIOPIA

WHEREAS it is essential to the orderly development of the legal system of Our Empire that a codified civil law be enacted; and

WHEREAS a Civil Code has been prepared under Our supervision and has received the approval of Our Senate and Chamber of Deputies;

NOW, THEREFORE, in accordance with Articles 34 and 88 Our Revised Constitution, We approve the resolution of Our Senate and Chamber of Deputies and We approve the resolutions of Our Senate and Chamber of Deputies and We hereby proclaim as follows:

1.  This proclamation may be cited as the “Civil Code Proclamation, 1960”
2.  The Civil Code of 1960, as published in a separate volume appearing as Extraordinary Issue No. 2 of 1960. As Extraordinary Issue No. 2 of 1960 of the Negarit Gazeta, shall come into force on the 11th day of September, 1960.

Done at Addis Ababa this 5th day of May, 1960

TSAHAFE TAEZAZ AKLILU HABTE WOLD

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Pen

BOOK I. PERSONS

TITILE I. PHYSICAL PERSONS

Chapter 1. Personality and the Rights inherent to personality

Section 1. Attribution of Personality

Art. 1.- Principle.

The human person is the subject of rights from its birth to its death.

Art.2.- Child merely conceived.

A child merely conceived shall be considered born whenever his interest so
demands, provided he is born alive and viable.

Art.3.- Date of conception.

(1)    A child shall be deemed to have been conceived on the three hundredth day which precedes his birth.
(2)    No proof shall be admitted against this presumption.
(3)    Nothing in this Article shall affect the provisions of this Code relating to the date of conception where it need be established who is  the father of the child.

Art 4.- Viable or not viable child.

(1)    A child shall be deemed to be viable where he lives for forty-eight hours after his birth, notwithstanding any proof to the contrary.
(2)    A child  shall be deemed to be not viable where he dies less than forty-eight hours after his birth.
(3)    The presumption laid down in sub-art. (2) may be rebutted by proving that the death of the child is due a cause other than a deficiency in his constitution.

Art.5- Proof of life or death of person. 1. Burden of proof.

(1)    Whosoever, for the purpose of exercising a right, alleges that a particular person is or was alive on a certain day, or is dead, shall prove the allegation.
(2)    The proof that a person is or was alive shall be made by producing the person himself or by the evidence of three witnesses or any other reliable evidence.
(3)    The proof of death shall be made in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 3 of this Title (art. 47).

Art. 6- 2. Persons dead simultaneously.

Where several persons are dead, and it is not possible to prove that one of such persons survived another, all these persons shall be deemed to have died at the same time.

Art.7- Proof of identity.

(1)    The identity of a person shall be proved by the documents issued to such person by the administrative authorities.
(2)    Failing such documents, it shall be proved by the production of two witnesses.
(3)    The witness shall be liable to third parties for the damage which may be caused through the inaccuracy of their declarations or evidence.

Section 2. Rights of Personality

Art. 8- Effect of personality.

(1)    Every physical person shall enjoy the rights of personality and the liberties guaranteed by the Ethiopian Constitution.
(2)    In this respect, no regard shall be had to the race, color, religion or sex of persons.

Art.9- Limitations to these effects.

(1)    The rights of personality and the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution are extra commercium.
(2)    Any voluntary limitation imposed on the exercise of such rights and liberties shall be of no effect unless it is justified by a legitimate interest.

Art. 10.- Cessation of unlawful molestations.

Any unlawful molestation to the personality shall give to the person who suffers it the right to demand that it be stopped, without prejudice to the liability of the author of such molestation.

Art.11.- Restriction on freedom and searches.

No person may have his freedom restricted, or be subjected to a search, except in the causes provided by law.

Art. 12.- Freedom of residence.

(1)    Every person is free to establish his residence wherever it is suitable for him and to  change the place of such residence.
(2)    The undertaking of a person to reside in a particular place shall be of no effect under civil law.
(3)    The undertaking of a person not to reside in or not to got to a particular place shall be of no effect unless it is justified by a legitimate interest.

Art.13- Inviolability of domicile.

(1)    The domicile of a physical person is inviolable
(2)    No one may enter the domicile of another against the will of such person, neither may a search be effected therein, except in the cases provided by law.

Art. 14.- Freedom of thought.

(1)    Every person is free to think and to express his ideas.
(2)    The only restrictions which this liberty admits of are those which are imposed by the respect for the rights of others, morality and the law.

Art. 15- Religion.

There shall be no interference with the exercise, in accordance with the law, of the rites of any religion or creed by residents of the Empire, provided that such rites be not utilized for political purposes or be not prejudicial to public order or morality.

Art.16.- Freedom of action.

(1)    Every  person is free to exercise any activity which he deems proper in that which concerns his calling and his leisure.
(2)    The only restrictions which such freedom admits of are those which are imposed by the respect for the rights of others, morality and the law.
(3)    The act by which a person binds himself to exercise a given activity or binds himself not exercise such activity shall be of no effect unless it is justified by a legitimate interest.

Art. 17.-  Marriage and divorce.

(1)    The undertaking of a person not to marry or not to remarry shall be of no effect under civil law.
(2)    This shall apply to the undertaking of a person to divorce or not to divorce.

Art. 18. Integrity of human body.

(1)    The act by which a person disposes of the whole or of a part of his body shall be of no effect under civil law where such act is to be carried out before the death of the person thus disposing, if such act has the effect of causing a serious injury to the integrity of the human body.
(2)    The provisions of sub-art. (1) shall not apply where the act is justified by the rules of medical practice.

Art. 19.- Revocability of acts relative thereto.

(1)    A person may at any time revoke the act by which he has disposed of the whole or a part of his body whether such act is to be carried out during the lifetime of the person by whom it was performed or after his death.
(2)    The person to whose advantage such act has been made has  the right to be indemnified for the expenses which he has incurred on the fait of such promise.

Art. 20- Medical examinations and treatment. -1. Principle.

(1)    A person may at any time refuse to submit himself to a medical or surgical examination or treatment.
(2)    Nothing in this Article shall  affect the provisions of laws or regulations providing for a physical examination of persons or their compulsory vaccination or other similar measures in the public interest,
(3)    Nothing in this Article shall affect the power of a guardian of a minor or interdicted person to submit the incapacitated person of whom he is in charge to an examination or treatment beneficial to that persons health.

Art.21.- 2. Restriction.

Where the examination or treatment to which a person is required to submit himself does not involve any abnormal risk, such person, in case of refusal, forfeits the rights to avail himself of the illness or infirmity which the treatment could have prevented, eliminated or lessened.

Art. 22. Medical examination

Where a person refuses to submit himself to a medical examination not involving any serious danger for the human body, the court may considers as established the facts which the examination had the object of ascertaining.

Art. 23.- Right to keep silent

Any  admission or manifestation of the will obtained by methods causing molestation to the personality shall be of no effect.

Art 24.- Professional secrecy:

(1)    A person may not be compelled to reveal facts which have come to his knowledge by reason of his profession, if by revealing such facts he will betray or risk to betraying the confidence which  a third person has placed in him for the very reason of his profession.
(2)    The person who has confided or disclosed such facts may ensure that they be not revealed by him in whom he has placed his confidence.
(3)    Nothing in this Article shall affect the provisions of Arts. 267 and 344 of the penal Code.

Art.25.- Funeral- 1. Will of deceased.

(1)    Every person having the capacity to make a will may prescribed the conditions of his funeral.
(2)    He may appoint one or more persons to ensure that such provisions are carried out.
(3)    The persons so appointed and, failing such, any other person who shows that he has a material or moral interest may apply to the court of the place of the death to enforce those provisions.

Art. 26.-2 Will not expressed.

(1)    Where the deceased has not expressed his will in the form mentioned in Art, 25, the conditions of his funeral shall be fixed by his surviving spouse or by his nearest relatives.
(2)    In default of the spouse and of relatives present or known at the time of the death, such conditions shall be fixed by the person who take the initiative thereof.
(3)    In case of contestation, the matter may be laid before the court of the place of death by the most diligent party.

Art.27- Image of the person,-1. Principle.

The photograph or the image of a person may not be exhibited in a public place of death by the most diligent party.

Art.28- 2. Exception.

The consent of the person concerned shall not be required where the reproduction of his image is justified by the notoriety of such person or by the public office which he occupied or by the requirements of justice or of the police or by a scientific, cultural or didactic interest, or where the reproduction of the image is made in connection with facts, events or ceremonies of public interest or which have taken place in public.

Art.29.-3. Sanction.

(1)    Where the image of a person is exhibited or offered for sale without the consent of such person, except in the cases referred to in Art. 28, such person may demand that the exhibition or offer for sale of his image be stopped.
(2)    The court may, if equity so demands, also award damages to such person with the limits of the enrichment derived by the person who made use of the image from its exhibition or offer for sale.
(3)    Damages for moral prejudice may be awarded if the exhibition or offer for sale does not cease immediately, when the cessation thereof is demanded.

Art.30.-4. Rights of the family.

(1)    Where the person whose image is exhibited or offered for sale is dead or not in a position to manifest his will, the right referred to in Art 29 shall vest in his relatives if the exhibition or offer for sale is of such a nature as to be prejudicial to the honor or reputation of the deceased person.
(2)    The only persons competent to represent the family for the application of the Article are the spouse, or, in his default, the nearest descendant or, in default of a descendant, the nearest ascendant of the person concerned.
(3)    In case of equal degrees, the eldest descendant or the oldest ascendant is the only person competent to represent the family.

Art. 31. – Inviolability of correspondence.

(1)    The addressee of a confidential letter may not divulge its contents without the consent of its author.
(2)    He may, however, produce it in judicial proceedings if he shows that he has a legitimate interest.