EXAMINING THE JURISPRUDENCE OF ETHIOPIAN COURTS ON PERIOD OF LIMITATION UNDER ETHIOPIAN CONTRACT OF SALES LAW IN LIGHT OF INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS

Abstract

The issue of period of limitation in contract of sale has also been regulated by international instruments like the limitation convention and UPICC. Thus, the objective of this study targeted in examining the Ethiopian courts jurisprudence while applying the rules of period of limitation in contracts of sale and assessing the similarity and difference that exists between those instruments comparatively with the Ethiopian period of limitation rules on contracts of sale to draw available lessons. To this end, a qualitative methodology which involves doctrinal legal research approach has been employed. Accordingly, it revealed that despite the designation of period of limitation rules on contract of sale to the purpose they fit, based on a qualitative analysis of the existing jurisprudence, the jurisprudence is facing problems due to the challenges in existing laws on period of limitation and the approach of courts. The compared instruments contain lessons capable of solving the challenges of Ethiopian legal system. Based on this, the study recommends consideration of organizing the scattered period of limitation rules of contracts of sale based on systematic classification and the federal supreme courts have to employ mechanisms enabling lower courts to apply decisions that have determined the scope of general contracts period of limitation rules to contracts of sale beyond publishing the decisions due to existences of a number of cassation decisions on different aspects of period of limitation reveal the controversial nature of the issue in contract of sale. From the instruments, lessons that are pertinent to eliminate those challenges and lessons that modernize the legal systems with the global aspects of international sales law have to be drawn