Bridging Legal Gaps with Customary Practices of Conflict Resolution as Restorative Justice: Comparative Analysis of Gadaa System with Ethiopian Criminal Law

Abstract

Conflict is inevitable in social life. It appeals for devising different systems and mechanisms to maintain peace and social cohesion. Now a day modern laws are supposed to maintain justice and social cohesion. Criminal law in particular applies when crime is committed. The modern criminal justice system however is criticized by many scholars as it gears toward punishment than restoring peace and social cohesion within community. This makes justice system unreliable as it fails to maintain social cohesion. Gadaa, on the other hand is known for peace making while resolving conflicts. The Oromo people, with cultural practices like ‘Ilaaf ilaammee’, ‘Jaarsummaa’, ‘Gumaa’ and others delivers justice while restoring peace within the society than the modern criminal justice system. This article scrutinized provisions of Ethiopian criminal code and its emphasis on peace making comparing with Gadaa system. Necessary data is gazed from literatures and black letter laws. These laws include: Criminal code, criminal procedure, criminal policy of Ethiopia are main sources for the analysis of criminal law. Relevant literatures on Gadaa system on dispute resolution are intensively reviewed. The research method therefore is qualitative one. The research finding shows Ethiopian criminal law is exiguous on restorative justice; while Gadaa system is effective in restoring peace while delivering justice. This in turn calls for inclusion and adequate accommodation of Gadaa dispute resolution method in Ethiopia’s criminal law. Lawmakers need to amend criminal code and criminal procedure to adequately accommodate Gadaa practices of dispute resolution that restore peace and maintain social cohesion while delivering justice.