Ethiopian Law MCP Server

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

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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.

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Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

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

Endpoint: https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/mcp"
    }
  }
}

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

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "ethiopian-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.ansvar.eu/law-et/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"]
    }
  }
}

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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)

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What's Included

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

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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.

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Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

International Law Integration Tools (5)

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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.

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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.

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Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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}
}

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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)

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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

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