Abstract:
Judicial protection is a crucial way of protecting citizen’s fundamental rights.
Judicial protection has both substantive and procedural aspects to it. First, the
recognition of a right to judicial protection in legislation and providing remedies for
people whose rights have been violated are the substantive elements of judicial
protection. The procedural aspect of judicial protection is concerned with the
establishment of pathways and a competent process that enables people to benefit
from the remedies available in the existing pathways. Besides, consumer rights are
also one aspect of citizens’ fundamental rights in any given country, which requires a
robust judicial protection arrangement. The main focus of this study is to analyse the
state of consumers’ judicial protection arrangements in the Amhara National
Regional State (ANRS), which is one of the regional administrations of Ethiopia.
Methodologically, in carrying out qualitative research, the researcher has employed
both doctrinal and empirical methods. Subsequently, both primary and secondary
data are employed. In doing so, this research has analysed the stipulations in the
FDRE constitution; the ANRS revised constitution; the 1960 civil code and other
pertinent proclamations, about the consumers’ judicial protection arrangements in
the ANRS region. The review of the substantive and procedural aspects of the
available consumers’ judicial protection arrangements has exposed several
shortcomings in both sides. The substantive aspect of the judicial framework of the
region has some limitation in the sense that the right to judicial protection right for
consumers is explicitly stated as a right but the existing rules regulating this area are
inadequate. The pathways for consumers to get judicial protection in the region are
also fraught with competency problems and practical challenges in terms of ensuring
fair, cheap and effective access to justice. Based on those findings, the researcher has
provided specific recommendations for each responsible organ to resolve these
incompetence and practical problems of the available arrangements for consumers in
accessing judicial protection through structural changes or transformation measures
within the existing framework without making new legislation to this effect.