Alert: Council of Ministers Regulation No. 586/2026 entered into force on 23 February 2026, published in Federal Negarit Gazette No. 17. It repeals Regulation No. 517/2022 (as amended) in its entirety.

Have you ever prevailed in court only to have the opposing side file an appeal? Or have you been on the side of appeal, fearing that you will lose everything before your appeal is even considered?

Under Ethiopian company law, the company is a separate legal person—but that separation does not immunize directors and senior managers from liability for their own wrongdoing, or for breaches of statutory duties imposed on them as fiduciaries and gatekeepers.

Under Ethiopian law, the principal limited-liability vehicles are the share company and the private limited company (PLC). In closely held settings, shareholders often overlap with managers, financing is internal, and shares are illiquid.

Ethiopia has entered a pivotal phase in regulating the data- and algorithm-driven economy. Two developments define this moment: the adoption of Ethiopias first comprehensive Personal Data Protection Proclamation and the federal executives approval of a National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy.

Commercial disputes are an inescapable feature of business activity, and the mechanism a party selects for resolving those disputes is among the most consequential decisions in any contractual relationship.

Ethiopia has opened residential property ownership to foreign nationals for the first time under Proclamation No. 1388/2025, ending decades of prohibition. What are the minimum investment thresholds, payment requirements, and registration procedures that foreign buyers, developers, and lenders must navigate?

Every business operating in Ethiopia — whether a domestic manufacturing company, a foreign-invested enterprise, a bank, or a multinational project developer — is ultimately subject to a single judicial institution that defines the boundaries of Ethiopian law with final and binding authority: the Federal Supreme Court Cassation Bench

Ethiopia's National Bank has transferred Letter of Credit approval authority from central oversight to commercial banks while introducing annualised, pro-rata fee structures aligned with international standards. The regulatory shift affects foreign currency account holders and retention account holders engaged in cross-border trade finance, removing prior NBE approval requirements for eligible LC and Cash Against Documents transactions.

The new Mass Media Proclamation 1238/2021 has introduced significant changes to the previous legal regime governing the media. The law has introduced commendable legal provisions that provide greater protection and space for media freedom as well as more flexibility with regard to investments in the media industry. In this brief commentary, we will provide the major changes made in the new Mass Media proclamation briefly.

When an Ethiopian arbitral tribunal renders a multi-million dollar award, winning is only half the battle.

Corporate criminal liability is increasingly central to business risk in Ethiopia, yet the doctrinal "trigger" is narrower and more text-dependent than...

Insurance provisions in commercial contracts are often copied from templates with little attention to local doctrine or claim mechanics.

Ethiopia's commercial landscape has undergone a profound structural transformation since the enactment of the Commercial Code of Ethiopia (Proclamation No. 1243/2021), which replaced the venerable 1960 Commercial Code that had governed business activity in the country for over six decades.

Ethiopia has emerged as one of the most compelling investment destinations on the African continent. With a population exceeding 120 million — the second largest in Africa — a strategic geographic position at the crossroads of African, Middle Eastern, and Asian trade routes, and a government that has undertaken a sweeping programme of economic liberalisation, the country presents opportunities of a scale and diversity that few jurisdictions on the continent can match.

Creativity is the heartbeat of a nation. The stories we tell, the songs we sing, the art we share-all of these define who we are as a people. As lawyers and advocates for justice, we must ensure that the law not only protects rights but also honors the imagination and cultural soul of our society. Recently, the respected author Alex Abreham expressed his deep frustration when his literary work was illegally adapted, performed, and circulated on platforms such as TikTok, radio, and other media outlets-without his consent.

Most business disputes are not caused by disagreement over headline commercial terms. They arise when the contract fails to allocate breakdown risk...

In Ethiopia, many insurance claim denials are presented as fact disputes, yet they usually track a limited set of doctrinal levers embedded in the 1960 Commercial Code.

The commercial relationship between the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia has deepened considerably over the past decade, driven by geographic proximity, complementary economic profiles, and a growing web of bilateral agreements that provide the legal infrastructure for sustained investment flows. For UAE-based investors — whether Emirati nationals, family offices, sovereign-adjacent funds, or the substantial community of international entrepreneurs who operate through UAE corporate structures —

Insurance is often purchased as a "risk transfer," but in disputes it behaves like a contract of conditions: coverage turns on how risks are defined, how exclusions and deductibles operate...