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19 Yale Hum. Rts. & Dev. L.J. 133 (2017)
Protests, Terrorism, and Development: On Ethiopia's Perpetual State of Emergency

handle is hein.journals/yhurdvl19 and id is 137 raw text is: Article Protests, Terrorism, and Development: On Ethiopia's Perpetual State of Emergency Awol Allot On October 8, 2016, the Ethiopian government officially declared a nationwide state of emergency in response to a year-long protest by members of Ethiopia's two largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and the Amhara. The Directive issued to implement the state of emergency institutes a new normative regime, astonishing in scope and scale, in which the de jure reversal of the relationship between the rule and the exception has culminated in a new legal reality. This Article argues that Ethiopia's de jure emergency is merely the latest manifestation of the de facto state of emergency in operation since the new Constitutional order was set in motion. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben and Carl Schmitt, I argue that the state of emergency, the defining feature of which is the temporary suspension of the norm, where the rule of man replaces the rule of law and the Leviathan reigns supreme, has been the central paradigm of government in Ethiopia since the Constitution came into force. Although this Article considers theoretical and jurisprudential questions around states of emergency, the main thrust of the analysis is to demonstrate the structural relationship between protest, terrorism, development, and the state of emergency in Ethiopia. In particular, this Article reflects on how national narratives of counterterrorism and development have provided the discursive and normative background for the blurring of the boundary between the rule and the exception, enabling the government to exercise power in increasingly violent ways. t Lecturer at Keele University School of Law. I am grateful for the thoughtful suggestions and commentary by participants of the Nathanson Guest Lecture series at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. I would also like to thank the editors of The Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal for their insights and encouragement throughout the editing process. 133

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