Regulation of Ordinary Partnership under Ethiopian Law: A Comparative Analysis of Selected Legal Issues with the French Civil Partnership and the Thai Ordinary Partnership Regimes

Abstract

Civil/ordinary partnerships as non-commercial entities play a vital role as an alternative form of doing business in various jurisdictions. Though the issue of where they should be regulated is becoming nonsensical in recent times, it is wise to have a well-structured legal framework which regulates these entities. This article aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the regulation of Ethiopia’s ordinary partnership with the French civil code partnership and the Thai ordinary partnership only on issues of formation, transfer of share, management, liability of partners, dissolution of partnership, distribution of profit and loss, and expulsion of a  partner. The comparative analysis shows that in many areas of regulation, the Ethiopian law has more commonalities with that of Thai ordinary partnership and French civil code partnership legal regimes. This article also finds that the Ethiopian law of ordinary partnership ought to be improved as regards the issues of the transfer of shares related to ascendants and descendants, on the distribution of profits and losses, on the role of partners in a dissolution of the partnership, and on the expulsion of a partner.