'Justice of the Kings') is a theocratic legal code compiled around 1240 by the Coptic Egyptian Christian writer Abu'l-Fada'il ibn al-Assal in Arabic.
The first part of Fetha Negest deals with mostly ecclesiastic affairs, outlining the structure of the Church hierarchy, sacraments, and such matters.
There are a few historical records claiming that this law code was translated into Ge'ez and entered Ethiopia around 1450 in the reign of Zara Yaqob.
The Fetha Negest remained officially the supreme law in Ethiopia until 1931, when a modern-style Constitution was first granted by Emperor Haile Selassie I.
Earlier, in 1921, shortly after becoming Regent, but before being crowned as Emperor, Haile Selassie I had directed that certain "cruel and unusual" punishments mandated in the Fetha, such as amputation of hands for conviction of theft, be made to cease entirely.