Legal-Pluralist Urban Political Ecology of Violence Preclusion in Addis Ababa Vicinity

Abstract

Using the 2018 Burayu incident as a key case study, this article explores why Ethiopia’s formal legal system is inherently incapable to avert violence in fast urbanising peripheries. It contends that indigenous peacebuilding mechanisms (Gumaa, Tuge) are routinely excluded from peri-urban conflict governance by the constitutional and legislative framework. This is shown specifically by the retributive Criminal Code, the strict urban/rural binary in land proclamations, and the limitation of customary law to “personal and family matters” under Article 34(5) of the FDRE Constitution. The study uses a “Legal-Pluralist Urban Political Ecology” paradigm to show how land commodification and jurisdictional gaps lead to ethnic violence. It is based on 107 focus groups and interviews with officials, elders, and victims. Transferrable hybrid governance models are produced by comparing Colombia, South Africa, Kenya, and the Philippines. The Urban Land Lease Proclamation (No. 721/2011), a new rule creating joint state-customary conflict resolution panels, and judicial guidelines. It acknowledges customary restorative outcomes that are among the specific legal reforms which the paper suggests. It comes to the conclusion that structured legal-pluralist architecture that co-legitimises formal and indigenous justice systems must take the place of the state-centric, monist legal order in order to achieve sustainable urban peace.