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Introduction
Ethiopia is a nation facing a silent crisis. After Eritrean and Tigrayan rebels overthrew Ethiopia's socialist-military government in 1991, members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (or "TPLF") reorganized into a new political party known as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (or "EPRDF") and assumed control of Ethiopia's central government.1 After 100 years of domination by the Amhara tribe, Ethiopia's new government, led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, claimed to usher in a new era of political openness.2 A former Secretary General of the TPLF, Zenawi invited representatives from Ethiopia's many regional and cultural minorities to participate in the drafting of Ethiopia's Transitional Charter and new Constitution.3
This so-called "Revolutionary Era" produced many significant political changes. In 1993, Eritrea passed a referendum declaring its independence and seceded from Ethiopia.4 Ethiopia did not challenge the referendum, and soon after it passed, the United Nations recognized Eritrea's sovereignty.5 When Ethiopia's Constitution was ratified in 1994, it established Ethiopia as a federal republic, and embraced the principle of self-determination through democratic rule.6 Allegedly to further these ends, the Constitution granted all "Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples" in Ethiopia the unconditional right to secede from the nation. To Ethiopian minorities and observers in the international community, the country seemed poised for democratic reform that would end decades of oppression.7
However, soon after the new Constitution was ratified, some legal scholars criticized its provision that allows regions within Ethiopia to secede.8 According to these scholars, the provision, articulated in Article 39, creates an unworkable form of central government by making it too easy for the country to break apart.9 Under Article 39, all a region needs to exercise its right of secession is a referendum passed by a two-thirds majority of its regional parliament and a separate referendum passed by a simple majority of the national parliament.10
Most of the scholars who have criticized Article 39 assume that its inclusion in the 1994 Constitution came about as a compromise between the EPRDF and other regional representatives." Under this assumption, the EPRDF reluctantly included Article 39 in the Constitution in order to appease regional calls for self-determination rights by minority populations who were inspired by Eritrea's secession in 1993.' In other words, the EPRDF needed to include Article 39 in...