To date, the literature on sentencing reform has largely focused on western jurisdictions, particularly the United States and Europe. Developments in other parts of the world, particularly on the African continent, have been overlooked. This article explores sentencing in a lesser-known African jurisdiction: Ethiopia. The focus of the essay is upon the issue of structured sentencing. Sentencing in Ethiopia, like most jurisdictions, has historically been a very discretionary stage of the criminal process. That has now changed with the introduction of a comprehensive guideline scheme. Although sentencing guidelines in the US and England and Wales have been the subject of much critical scrutiny, nonwestern guidelines have attracted very little attention from scholars. Although there are parallels between the structure of the Ethiopian system and guidelines in other countries, there are also important differences. Since they are more developed than guidelines in adjacent countries, the Ethiopian guidelines constitute a model for other regional nations, including those with a post-colonial legacy. After providing an overview of sentencing in Ethiopia, the article describes the origin, nature, and consequences of the Ethiopian guidelines. The guidelines provide sentence ranges for different levels of seriousness for many crimes, and also prescribe a methodology to guide courts sentencing for offences for which no such guidance exists. They also provide some structure for the judicial use of mitigating and aggravating factors at sentencing. We conclude by identifying some deficiencies of the current guidelines and propose some specific remedies.

中文翻译：

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走出非洲：探索埃塞俄比亚量刑指南

迄今为止，关于量刑改革的文献主要集中在西方司法管辖区，尤其是美国和欧洲。世界其他地区的发展，特别是非洲大陆的发展，被忽视了。本文探讨了鲜为人知的非洲司法管辖区的判决：埃塞俄比亚。本文的重点是结构化量刑问题。与大多数司法管辖区一样，埃塞俄比亚的量刑历来是刑事诉讼中一个非常自由裁量的阶段。现在，随着全面的指南计划的引入，情况发生了变化。尽管美国、英格兰和威尔士的量刑指南一直受到严格审查，但非西方的指南很少引起学者的关注。尽管埃塞俄比亚体系的结构与其他国家的指导方针有相似之处，但也存在重要差异。由于它们比邻国的指导方针更发达，埃塞俄比亚的指导方针构成了其他地区国家的典范，包括那些具有后殖民遗产的国家。在概述了埃塞俄比亚的量刑后，文章描述了埃塞俄比亚准则的起源、性质和后果。该准则为许多罪行的不同严重程度提供了量刑范围，并规定了一种方法来指导法院对不存在此类指导的罪行进行量刑。它们还为司法在量刑时使用减轻和加重因素提供了一些结构。