Eritrea is a territory of about 46,000 sq. miles on the western shore of the Red Sea. It is bounded on the south by Ethiopia, on the north and west by the Sudan, and on the south east by French Somaliland. Its one million inhabitants are divided almost equally between Coptic Christians and Moslems, with a few Europeans, mostly Italians. Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1890 to the 1947 peace treaty which ended World War II, under which Italy renounced all claim to it. The British conquered it in 1941, and administered it until 15th September, 1952, when it became federated with Ethiopia as an autonomous unit, pursuant to a resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations, passed 2nd December, 1950.2 Eritrea today resembles an American state, with jurisdiction over its local laws, including customary law.
page 99 note 2 Final Report of the United Nations Commissioner in Eritrea, General Assembly Official Records: Seventh Session-Supplement No. 15 (A/2188), New York 1952, PP- 1, 74–5:45–6.
page 99 note 3 Special Supplements to the Journal of African Administration October 1953 and April 1957, inside cover. HMSO.Google Scholar
page 99 note 4 See the Report cited in note a, supra, pp. 23–35, 32, 45, 74, 79.
page 100 note 1 Ibid., pp. 5, 6,8, 16, 17,82.
page 100 note 2 Ibid., p. 89.
page 100 note 3 Petazzi, , L’Odierno Diritto Penale Consuetudinario dello Hamasien (Eritrea), 1918, Art. 12, p. 32.Google Scholar
page 101 note 1 [1904] 1 K.B. 591.
page 101 note 2 See 1956 Judicial Advisers’ Conference Record, Ch. VI, The Conflict between the European Idea of Punishment and the African Idea of Compensation, pp. 3–33, particularly the limitations on payment of blood money in Tanganyika, including; (a) local customary law must always have allowed it, (b) it is not payable if the person accused of homicide has been executed; (c) nor if the person accused has been acquitted by the High Court, etc. See also South African Native Administration Act, No. 38 of 1927, section II(i) “Provided that such Native law shall not be opposed to the principles of public policy or natural justice”, discussed in Julius Lewin, Studies in African Native Law, 1947, pp. 14, 57, 98, 99.
page 102 note 1 As a practical matter, American armed forces personnel in Eritrea are not allowed, by the U.S. Authorities, to drive private motor vehicles unless covered by liability insurance to an extent much greater than required for payment of any blood money under any Eritrean custom.
page 102 note 2 See 1953 Record, pp. 22–25; 1956 Record, pp. 9–10.
page 102 note 3 The three codes are that of Adghena Gheleba in the Akele Guzai Division; of Atcheme Melga in the Serae Division; and of Loggo Ciwa in the Hamasien Division—all three Highland Christian Divisions.
page 102 note 4 Roden, K. G., The Tribes of Mensa, Stockholm 1913.Google Scholar
page 102 note 5 Alberto, Pollera, L’Abissinia di leri, Rome 1940.Google Scholar
page 102 note 6 Ostini, , Trattato di Diritto Consuetudinario dell’ Eritrea, Asmara, 1956.Google Scholar
page 102 note 7 Principii di diritto consuetudinario dell’ Eritrea, Rome 1916Google Scholar; I Loggo e la legge dei Loggo Sarda-Giomaie Soc. Asiatica Italiana Vol. xvii-Florence 1904; and others.Google Scholar
page 102 note 8 Petazzi, , L’Odierno Diritto Penale Consuetudinario dello Hamasien (Eritrea), 1918, Art. 12, p. 32.Google Scholar
page 102 note 9 Ilario, Capomazza, Il diritto consuetudinario dell’ Akele Guzai, Asmara, Fioretti, 1937.Google Scholar
page 103 note 1 A. St. HanniganJ, J J, J, Native Custom, its Similarity to English Conventional Custom and its Mode of Proof, [1958] J.A.L., p. 101 ff.Google Scholar
page 103 note 2 The Federal Deputy Advocate-General, in charge of prosecutions in Asmara, claimed that the Federal Government could punish purely local offences by virtue of the following language in the Federal Act which implemented the UN Resolution of 2 December 1950:
“The Federal Government, as well as Eritrea, shall ensure to residents in Eritrea, without distinction of nationality, race, sex, language or religion, the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental liberties, including the following:”
then follow the rights to equality before the law, freedom of speech, etc. Compare the last paragraph in the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress power to enforce the provisions of the three amendments by appropriate legislation. The learned Deputy Advocate-General perhaps had some such theory in mind. This last paragraph in the Fourteenth Amendment is the constitutional basis for Federal intervention in the recent Arkansas school controversy.
page 103 note 3 The title of “The Goat Case” is Deputy Advocate-General v. Fitirauri Hagdu Ghilhaber; the judgment was written by Mr. Justice G. N. Debbas.