Wikipedia:Peer review/1931 Constitution of Ethiopia/archive1

1931 Constitution of Ethiopia

This peer review discussion has been closed.
While this is admittedly an esoteric subject which is likely to scare off anyone without a serious interest in constitutional law &/or Ethiopian history (i.e., almost everyone), I'd like some feedback on this article as to coverage ("Does it answer every reasonable question a non-expert might have on the subject? Okay then, how about most of them?"), coherence, & if it at least meets the unspecified standard for a B-category article in the categories it might fall into. Simply stated, I've accumulated more information on this subject than I thought I ever could, & want to know if I have succeeded in presenting that material in a useful manner. If not, then tell me what needs fixing.

Thanks, llywrch (talk) 06:00, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Comments from Cryptic C62

Oh hey, fancy meeting you here! I usually focus on the details when I'm peer reviewing, but here I will make a rare exception and try to avoid nitpicking altogether until we've evaluated the article as a whole. My thoughts:

• "Regent Haile Selassie had wanted Empress Zawditu to proclaim such a document" Why? It would be beneficial to elaborate on Selassie's thoughts behind the constitution.
  • Good point -- llywrch (talk)
• "Unlike its Japanese model, the Ethiopian Constitution was a simple document of 55 articles arranged in seven chapters." In order for this comparison to be helpful, more needs to be said about the Japanese constitution. How many articles?
  • Um, those are more or less Keller's words. Until a month ago, I didn't even have access to a copy of the 1931 constitution, & comparing it to the Meji Constitution I see a number of points where the Ethiopian constitution drew on it (e.g., both have a chapter on the "rights & duties of its subjects" -- an unusual concept in constitutional law). -- llywrch (talk)
• "Twelve articles setting forth the powers of the Emperor." Which are...?
  • Good point. -- llywrch (talk)
• "Article 54 establishes Special Courts, required by the Klobukowski agreement of 1906, which had exempted foreigners from both Ethiopian law and her justice system." Who is she?
  • Klobukowski was a he. A French diplomat, to be precise -- or do you mean the possessive adjective in the phrase "her justice system"? Isn't it accepted practice to refer to a country as a "she"? -- llywrch (talk)
    • I had assumed that "she" referred to Klobukowski. I have never seen countries referred to as "she" in encyclopedic writing, but that may be for the simple reason that I don't work on country-related articles very often. Regardless of what the accepted practice is, I think in this case it would make sense to change "she" to "its". Better yet, we could change "both Ethiopian law and her justice system" to "the Ethiopian legal system". --Cryptic C62 · Talk 23:55, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
• "Following the restoration of Haile Selassie in 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie re-established the 1931 constitution, convening the parliament 2 November 1942. This body included a chamber of deputies which was double its pre-war size..." There's some sort of conflict being hinted at here, but it's not clear what's going on.
  • By conflict, do you mean the Second Italo-Abyssinian War? Or are you referring to the increased size of the Chamber of Deputies? -- llywrch (talk)
    • I suppose I might be referring to the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, though I wouldn't really know. The phrases that stuck out to me as being mysterious were "restoration of Haile Selassie", whose link target is not at all clear from the anchor text, and "pre-war" because it hasn't been made clear what war is being referred to. --Cryptic C62 · Talk 23:55, 3 May 2011 (UTC)
• "The Constitution of 1931 was superseded at the time of Emperor Haile Selassie's silver jubilee, when a new constitution was promulgated." When was this and why was it superseded? And what the f*ck is a silver jubilee???
  • Wouldn't that be better explained in the article on the 1955 constitution? Just asking. And would it help if Silver Jubilee were linked? -- llywrch (talk)
    • Well, why was the 1955 constitution instated? The obvious generic answer is that the 1931 was not effective or not well-supported. That should be explained here. And yes, it would help if silver jubilee were linked. --Cryptic C62 · Talk 23:55, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

--Cryptic C62 · Talk 00:43, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. This is the sort of thing I was looking for. -- llywrch (talk) 06:17, 1 May 2011 (UTC)