The “Principle of Autonomy” in Contract under the Civil Code of Ethiopian: Is It an Absolute Principle?

Abstract

Many legal systems consider the role of contract law as enforcing the agreement of the parties. The conception of autonomy or freedom of contract during the classical period of contract law suggests that the law should enforce any agreement that was “freely made” between the parties provided that it has no adverse effect on others. The contemporary trend (after 1980 G.C), inspired by the concern for fairness and justice, challenges the classical notion of autonomy of contract. While contract law emphasizes the autonomy of the parties to choose their own terms, there are some sets of restrictions, i.e. mandatory rules. These are the “rules of the game” which the parties have not chosen, and most of which are not within the powers of the parties to disregard or waive by agreement. The autonomy of contract is among the founding principles of the concept of “contract” under the Civil Code of Ethiopia (CCE). This paper examined the scope of the principle of autonomy as adopted under Book IV Title XII of the Civil Code of Ethiopia. To this end, as a doctrinal research, qualitative research method is applied to explore and understand the principle of autonomy under the Ethiopian law of contract.