Contractual Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property Ownership System under Ethiopian Law

Abstract

This study aims to examine the immovable property ownership transfer system in general and that of Ethiopia, as a civil law country, in particular. It attempts to bring forth the globally recognized French casual consensual model, German Abstract tradio model and the mixed systems of immovable property ownership transfer to the attention of readers. The article also tries to locate the Ethiopian system of immovable property ownership transfer into the perspective of the recognized models of immovable property ownership transfer for better understanding. For the transfer of ownership of Immovable property under Ethiopian law, two main cumulative conditions of valid underlying cause (contract) and Registration in the Registry of Immovable property are required to be met. The registration requirement under Article 2878 of the Ethiopian Civil Code along with some of the Supreme Court cassation decisions leads to the conclusion that Ethiopia adopted the French Model of casual consensual real property transfer system where ownership transfer upon consent only without further requirement of title transfer registration. Consequently, the registration requirement under these scenarios seems only for publicity purpose having only declarative effects with third party protection in mind. Considering the property law provisions of the same code and other legislations concerning real property registration, however, it appears that Ethiopia as a system adopts the mixed system of immovable property ownership transfer where both the valid contract, as a legal ground, and registration of title transfer as a mode of acquirement(not only for publicity purpose) are requirements. The Ethiopian system of immovable property transfer, being approached from the above seemingly contrasting views, appears to be ambivalently oscillates between the systems of casual consensual and casual tradition systems of immovable property ownership transfers. The paper, therefore, juxtaposes the contract and real property law provisions of Ethiopian law, on the one hand, and the Supreme Court Cassation Division decisions, on the other hand, in contending that Ethiopia adopted mixed model of immovable property ownership transfer