Improvements in performance and effectiveness of justice system
The Republic of Uzbekistan (“Uzbekistan”) has been consistently adopting measures directed at further improvement of the judicial and legal system, enforcement of measures to ensure the reliable protection of the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and entrepreneurs, effective justice, and the enhancement of the role of the judicial community.
In this regard, the Decree of the President of Uzbekistan "On Additional Measures to Further Improve the Efficiency of the Courts and the Administration of Justice" No. 6034 dated 24.07.2020 (the "Decree") has provided a list of actions aimed at improving the access of citizens to justice, improving the quality of case administration in courts, as well as enhancing mechanisms ensuring equality and competitiveness of the parties in courts, contributing to objective, fair and legitimate judicial decision-making.
1. Draft Law
According to the Decree, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan (the “Supreme Court”) in cooperation with the Supreme Judicial Council (the "Supreme Judicial Council") should introduce a draft law within a two-month period to provide for the following organizational and structural changes in the judicial system as of 01.01.2021:
- establishment of courts of general jurisdiction of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, viloyats (regions), and the city of Tashkent on the basis of the existing regional civil, criminal and economic courts with the preservation of strict specialization of judges and the formation of separate judicial panels according to the types of legal proceedings;
- transfer of powers of administrative courts to review administrative case offenses to criminal courts;
- establishment of inter-district administrative courts specializing in cases arising from administrative and other public-law relations in centers of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, viloyats (regions) and the city of Tashkent, together with the abolishment of the district (city) administrative courts while retaining the existing administrative courts in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and the city of Tashkent;
- abolishment of a number of district economic courts (Amudarya, Nurabad, Baysun and Pastdargom);
- establishment of the Yangiyul inter-district civil court and Urgut, Sokh, Khatirchi, and Pakhtakor district courts for civil cases, the Pastdargom inter-district economic court, and the Buzatov, Takhiatash, Bandikhan, and Tuppokkala district criminal courts;
- granting the right to appeal decisions of both the Higher Qualification Panel of Judges of Uzbekistan and the qualification panel of judges of regional courts to the Supreme Judicial Council.
2. Adopted Measures
In addition, the Decree provides for the abolishment of the stage of supervisory review of court decisions as of 01.01.2021.
Now, the procedure for appealing court decisions is as follows:
- decisions of inter-district or district (city) courts may be reviewed on appeal by regional courts, and decisions of regional courts that were rendered as a decision of the first instance court may be reviewed on appeal by judicial panels of the Supreme Court;
- court decisions considered at the appellate level may be reviewed in cassation by the judicial panels of the Supreme Court;
- decisions reviewed at the cassation level by judicial panels of the Supreme Court may be reconsidered upon protest of the presiding judge of the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General of Uzbekistan or their deputies.
Other procedural changes:
- the refusal of the public prosecutor to proceed with a prosecution automatically leads to the termination of the criminal case based on exculpatory grounds;
- the prosecutor may request a case from a court and examine it if the verdict, decision or order of the court has entered into legal force, only if there is a request from the parties to the case;
- the prosecutor is not allowed to participate at his/her own initiative in the consideration of civil or economic cases initiated by other persons, except for cases established by law.
3. Judicial Bench
The Decree also approved the creation of a special judicial bench for the consideration of investment disputes and competition cases within the Supreme Court ("Judicial Bench").
The competence of the Judicial Bench includes consideration of investment disputes arising between individuals or legal entities that have made investments in the amount of at least 20 (twenty) million US dollars ("Major Investors") and state authorities, as well as competition cases. Competition cases include disputes related to economic concentrations, abuse of a dominant position, anti-competitive agreements and unfair competition, as well as anti-competitive activities of state authorities.
The Decree allows for consideration of cases directly by the Judicial Bench as a court of the first instance at the request of the Major Investors in investment disputes, as well as by parties in competition cases. At the same time, investment disputes can also be considered by the courts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and the city of Tashkent as a court of first instance at the request of Major Investors.
4. Structural Changes within the Supreme and Regional Courts
The Decree approved the introduction of the following positions and structural divisions into the structure of the Supreme Court:
- the position of Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court, reporting to the Plenum of the Supreme Court, responsible for organizing and coordinating activities of the Supreme Court departments and divisions;
- department for analysis of legislation in the judicial sphere;
- public and media relations departments.
The press service was also introduced into the structure of regional and equivalent courts as a structural division.
5. New edition of the Law "On Courts”
The Supreme Court in cooperation with the Supreme Judicial Council is currently drafting a new edition of the law "On Courts" which should reflect the following:
- the structure of courts and the scope of authority of all types of courts in Uzbekistan;
- requirements for candidate judges and judges;
- procedure for the appointment (election) of judges, chairmen and vice-chairmen of courts;
- strengthening the status and guarantees of judges’ independence;
- disciplinary liability of judges to be imposed only by the relevant qualification panels of judges, as well as the procedure for initiation and consideration of disciplinary cases;
- grounds and procedure for suspension and termination of the powers of a judge;
- material support of judges and their social security.
The draft of the new edition of the law "On Courts" should be submitted to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis by 01.11.2020.
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