This study tracks the ancient Ethiopian Fetḥa Nagaśt (‘Law of the Kings’) to its origins, which date back to compilations of Roman-Byzantine law from the fifth to the ninth centuries, first translated from Greek into Arabic by Coptic Christian jurists in Egypt in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and into the classical Ethiopic language (Ge’ez) in the mid-seventeenth century. The transfer of this Eastern Roman torso of law to the radically different social environment of Ethiopia may be ranked as one of the earliest systemic ‘receptions’ in comparative legal history. While never attaining the dominant status of Roman law in medieval European practice, the survival and resilience of the Fetḥa Nagaśt in the subsequent evolution of the country’s legal and political system from the seventeenth century onwards has indeed been remarkable – including its ‘inspirational’ role acknowledged in twentieth-century modern codifications. What distinguishes Ethiopia from other ‘mixed legal systems’, though, is the absence of a ‘genetic’ relationship with any one foreign legal system.

中文翻译：

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埃塞俄比亚的罗马法：十七世纪移植的痕迹

这项研究追踪了古老的埃塞俄比亚 Fetḥa Nagaśt（“国王法”）的起源，该法可追溯到 5 世纪到 9 世纪的罗马-拜占庭法律汇编，最初由埃及的科普特基督教法学家从希腊语翻译成阿拉伯语在十二和十三世纪，并在十七世纪中叶进入古典埃塞俄比亚语（Ge'ez）。将这一东罗马法律的躯干转移到埃塞俄比亚截然不同的社会环境中，可以说是比较法律史上最早的系统性“接受”之一。虽然在中世纪的欧洲实践中从未达到罗马法的主导地位，Fetḥa Nagaśt 在该国从 17 世纪以来的法律和政治体系的后续演变中的生存和恢复能力确实是非凡的——包括其在 20 世纪现代法典中所承认的“鼓舞人心”的作用。然而，埃塞俄比亚与其他“混合法律体系”的不同之处在于与任何一个外国法律体系都没有“遗传”关系。