Ethiopian Law MCP Server

The Ethiopian Legal Brief alternative for the AI age.

Query 383 Ethiopian laws -- from the Computer Crime Proclamation and the Criminal Code to the Investment Proclamation, Labour Proclamation, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you're building legal tech, compliance tools, or doing Ethiopian legal research, this is your verified reference database.

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

Why This Exists

Ethiopian legal research means navigating ethiopianlegalbrief.com, lo.gov.et (Federal Negarit Gazeta), and scattered PDF publications. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking obligations under the Investment Proclamation or Data Protection framework
• A legal tech developer building tools on Ethiopian law
• A researcher tracing legislative provisions across federal proclamations

...you shouldn't need dozens of browser tabs and manual PDF cross-referencing. Ask Claude. Get the exact provision. With context.

This MCP server makes Ethiopian law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable.

Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

Connect directly to the hosted version -- zero dependencies, nothing to install.

Endpoint: https://ethiopian-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://ethiopian-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot -- add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://ethiopian-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

npx @ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/ethiopian-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does the Computer Crime Proclamation say about cybercrime offences?"
• "Find provisions in the Criminal Code about corruption and bribery"
• "What are the requirements under the Investment Proclamation for foreign investors?"
• "Is Proclamation No. 1038/2017 still in force?"
• "Search for data protection provisions in Ethiopian law"
• "What does the Labour Proclamation say about termination of employment?"
• "Build a legal stance on intellectual property protection in Ethiopia"
• "Validate the citation 'Proclamation No. 810/2013'"

In Amharic (ኣማርኛ):

• "የኢትዮጵያ የሰራተኛ ህግ ምንድን ነው?" (What is Ethiopian labour law?)
• "የወንጀል ህጉ ስለ ሙስና ምን ይላል?" (What does the Criminal Code say about corruption?)
• "ስለ ኢንቨስትመንት አዋጅ ድንጋጌዎችን ፈልግ" (Search for provisions in the Investment Proclamation)

What's Included

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (Federal Negarit Gazeta, lawethiopia.com). Zero LLM-generated content.

Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from lawethiopia.com and the Federal Negarit Gazeta (lo.gov.et)
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains proclamation text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

• Search returns ranked provisions with BM25 scoring (safe for context)
• Provision retrieval gives exact text by proclamation number and article
• Cross-references help navigate without loading everything at once

Technical Architecture:

lawethiopia.com / lo.gov.et --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                                  ^                        ^
                           Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional: Search Negarit Gazeta --> Download PDF --> Ctrl+F --> Cross-reference proclamations --> Check amendments manually --> Repeat

This MCP: "What does Proclamation No. 1037/2017 say about cybercrime and what are the penalties?" --> Done.

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

International Law Integration Tools (5)

International Law Alignment

Ethiopia is not an EU member state. Ethiopian law develops through its own constitutional and federal legislative framework, with international alignment through:

• African Union (AU) -- Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection; AU frameworks on digital economy and data governance
• IGAD -- Regional integration framework for the Horn of Africa
• EAC (observer) -- East African Community regulatory alignment
• UN Conventions -- UNCAC (anti-corruption), UNTOC, and international human rights instruments

The international bridge tools allow you to explore these alignment relationships -- checking which Ethiopian provisions correspond to AU or UN requirements, and vice versa.

Note: International cross-references reflect alignment and framework relationships, not direct transposition. Ethiopia develops its own legislative approach, and the alignment tools help identify where Ethiopian and international law address similar domains.

Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Ethiopian legal databases:

• lawethiopia.com -- Comprehensive Ethiopian legislation database (primary source)
• Federal Negarit Gazeta -- Official government gazette (lo.gov.et)

Data Provenance

Automated Freshness Checks

A GitHub Actions workflow monitors data sources for changes:

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources. Zero LLM-generated content.

Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

See SECURITY.md for the full policy and vulnerability reporting.

Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from lawethiopia.com and the Federal Negarit Gazeta. However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Court case coverage is not included -- do not rely solely on this for case law research
• Verify critical citations against primary sources for court filings
• International cross-references reflect alignment relationships, not direct transposition
• Amharic-language versions -- where proclamations exist in both English and Amharic, verify the Amharic text against official Negarit Gazeta publications

Before using professionally, read: DISCLAIMER.md | SECURITY.md

Client Confidentiality

Queries go through the Claude API. For privileged or confidential matters, use on-premise deployment.

Bar Association

For professional legal use in Ethiopia, consult guidance from the Ethiopian Bar Association and the Ethiopian Lawyers Association regarding professional obligations.

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Ethiopian-Law-MCP
cd Ethiopian-Law-MCP
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Running Locally

npm run dev                                       # Start MCP server
npx @anthropic/mcp-inspector node dist/index.js   # Test with MCP Inspector

Data Management

npm run ingest              # Ingest laws from lawethiopia.com
npm run build:db            # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run drift:detect        # Run drift detection against anchors
npm run check-updates       # Check for amendments and new proclamations
npm run census              # Generate coverage census

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~17 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate across 383 laws

Related Projects: Complete Compliance Suite

This server is part of Ansvar's Compliance Suite -- MCP servers that work together for end-to-end compliance coverage:

@ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

Query 49 EU regulations directly from Claude -- GDPR, AI Act, DORA, NIS2, MiFID II, eIDAS, and more. Full regulatory text with article-level search. npx @ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

Query US federal and state compliance laws -- HIPAA, CCPA, SOX, GLBA, FERPA, and more. npx @ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/security-controls-mcp

Query 261 security frameworks -- ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, CIS Controls, SCF, and more. npx @ansvar/security-controls-mcp

70+ national law MCPs covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK, and more.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• Amharic-language full-text provision ingestion
• Court case law expansion (Federal Supreme Court, Federal High Court)
• Historical proclamation versions and amendment tracking
• Regional state legislation coverage
• AU framework cross-reference expansion

Roadmap

• Core proclamation database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (383 laws, 8,723 provisions)
• International law alignment tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Amharic-language provision text
• Court case law expansion
• Historical proclamation versions (amendment tracking)
• Regional state legislation
• AU Malabo Convention cross-references

Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{ethiopian_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {Ethiopian Law MCP Server: AI-Powered Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Ethiopian-Law-MCP},
  note = {383 Ethiopian proclamations with 8,723 provisions sourced from lawethiopia.com and Federal Negarit Gazeta}
}

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Proclamations & Legislation: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (public domain)
• International Framework Metadata: AU / UN (public domain)

About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the global market. This MCP server started as our internal reference tool -- turns out everyone building for the Ethiopian or East African market has the same research frustrations.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 383 federal proclamations shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

_{Built with care in Stockholm, Sweden}