In Kazakhstan, it’s planned to give more powers to judges

The Ministry of Justice of Kazakhstan, together with the Supreme Court, has developed a new draft Administrative Procedure Code (APC), according to which judges of Kazakhstan will be obliged to collect evidences independently.

According to the Minister of Justice Marat Beketaev, the new Code will not only allow Kazakh judges to be liberated, but also make them look like their American colleagues. This was announced by the Head of the department at a briefing in Nur-Sultan during the presentation of the APC. Beketaev noted that now, judges usually play the role of passive participants in the process. “All their work comes down to listening to the conflicting parties, reviewing their evidence base and passing a verdict. When the APC becomes operative, the situation will be completely changed,” Beketaev emphasizes. “Judges will be obligated to find out the relevant circumstances of the dispute, independently collect evidence and investigate the circumstances of the case.” In addition, according to the Minister, the APC will force judges to interpret all doubts, contradictions and ambiguities in favor of citizens, especially in disputes with state bodies.

“An ordinary citizen doesn’t have such a budget and a staff of lawyers as a state body,” Beketaev explained. “In these conditions, the active role of the court is justified. Will the judge help them? Of course!

According to the Minister, the goal of the APC is to consolidate a set of guarantees that will allow citizens to participate more actively in the process of making managerial decisions, to establish effective mechanisms for protecting citizens’ rights in considering disputes with authorities in a higher agency and court.

He also expressed hope that the adoption of the Code would give a new format to the relations between the state and society, in accordance with the highest values ​​of the Constitution of Kazakhstan.

At the same time, Beketaev noted that the introduction of the APC could theoretically lead to an increase in filing lawsuits.

“In all countries that have carried out such reforms, there was such a leap,” he explained. “Therefore, we also expect, having regard to the simplified procedure, that the judge will take an active role and help.”

According to Beketaev, a mandatory pre-trial procedure will be introduced to help the courts cope with the workload. That is, if a citizen doesn’t agree with one or another decision of a state agency, he will first have to challenge this decision in the state agency. And only then after 15 days, he will be able to go to court.

“Such mechanisms will help prevent overload,” said Beketaev. “Finally, the success of the reform depends on this. That is, it can fail if the courts fail to succeed, and government agencies continue to do what they have done before. We see that this mechanism worked effectively in other countries, with varying degrees of success, but over time, this led to better protection of citizens.”

It is worth noting that the European Commission for Democracy through Law, as well as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, gave positive conclusions on the draft Code.