Approved by the Decree of the President

of the Republic of Kazakhstan,

dated 24 August 2009,

No. 858

 

The Conceptual Framework of Legal Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan

for the period 2010-2020

 

1. Introduction

                                                                            

The Conceptual Framework of the Legal Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan which was adopted in the year 2002 determined the main directions of the development of legal system of the country for the period up to the year 2010. During the last few years a number of very important Acts have been passed which are now promoting the growth of State and social institutions and are helping in sustainable socio-economic advancement of Kazakhstan.

Realization of this conceptual framework has led to significant improvement in the main branches of national law (constitutional, administrative, civil, banking, taxation, financial, customs, environmental, criminal, criminal-procedural, and correctional (criminal-executive) laws).

The new Codes that have been adopted are: in the year 2003 - Forest Code, Land Code, Customs Code, and Water Code; in the year 2007 - Labour Code, Environment Code; in the year – 2008 - and Budget Code and Tax Code.

The Government has taken measures that have taken the process of legislation to a qualitatively new level. These measures include: perspective planning of the work involving drafting of Bills; involvement of legal, anticorruption, criminological and other expertise for preparing the drafts of future enactments; full financial support for the Acts that have been adopted.

However, due to fundamental changes taking place in the world economy and politics, the processes of globalization, as also the internal dynamics of country’s development it is not possible to settle down at what we have already achieved. With the aim of adapting our national law to the new challenges of present times it is necessary to improve further the legislative and law-enforcement process.

The first decade of the 21st century heralds a new stage of Constitution building in Kazakhstan. On 21st  May 2007 the «Act on carrying out modifications and additions in the Constitution of the Republic Kazakhstan» was passed. It paved the way for innovations which were fundamentally important for the country. While doing so the basic parameters of the Kazakhstan model of State system were maintained which have stood the test of time.

While carrying out Constitutional reforms within the limits of this model the system of relations of different organs of power was modernized leading to increased role and influence of the Houses of Parliament which now bear more responsibility for the state of affairs in the country.

Thanks to the all-around development of institutions of civil society, harmonization of relations between the Government and the society, the constitutional prohibitions and restrictions have been removed for promoting more active interaction between the Government and public institutions, the system of local self-government has been modernized, and now it is in total consonance with the internal conditions and requirements of our country.

At the constitutional level a new stage of judicial-legal reforms for strengthening the independence of courts in pronouncing judgments has set in. The scope of capital punishment has been curtailed, and now it is limited exclusively to terrorist crimes involving loss of human life, and some grave crimes committed during wartime. This implies almost total abolition of capital punishment so far as Kazakhstan is concerned. The system of judicial custody has been introduced, and the Constitutional prohibition of conducting investigation by the Office of Public Prosecutor and the court has been removed.

These reforms are directed towards further democratization of the institutions of the Government and the society. All the above-mentioned systemic which are Constitutionally recognized decisions are bound to be reflected in the current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In order to make the legislation activity more effective it is necessary to go ahead with the systematization of  the current legislation, further consolidation across various branches of legislation; its emancipation from outdated and duplicate norms, filling up of gaps in legal regulations, removal of internal contradictions in the existing laws; minimization of referral norms in the Acts, and increased adoption of directly applicable laws on such matters where the Constitution allows  passing of the relevant Acts.

It is necessary to give special attention to prognostic-analytical side of law-making activity which has to be based on constant monitoring of tendencies of the development of branches of the law and legal systems, as also on the analysis of practice of the application of standard legal Acts.

In this way it will be possible to create a system that would be modern in its content and methods of regulation vividly reflecting all the stages of legislation and law-enforcement activity with regard to each Act - its preparation, adoption, application, carrying out amendments and additions, recognition of annulment of certain Act or preparation of a new Act.

By means of such procedures and mechanisms the legislative activity of the State organs becomes optimized and systematized. In this matter while monitoring the laws a wide application of sociological methods may be helpful in taking into account public opinion maximally during implementation of the legal policy.

Evaluation of standard legal Acts will done as per international standards which will ensure that the interests of the citizens, society and the State are being taken into consideration more comprehensively, and at the same time efficacy, profitability and rationality of laws will also be ensured.

It is important to have statutory support for all kinds of legal expertise with regard to the drafts of Bills by determining their criteria, purpose, as also the stages through which they have to pass.  It is through this kind of approach towards the expertise that a real consideration of financial-economic and socio-political consequences of the adoption of normative legal Acts can be ensured during the law-making process.

There is also a need to consult legal experts while preparing the drafts of international agreements of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Thus, by evolving a system of legal expertise it will be possible to solve the problem of preparation of drafts of Bills according to the present needs and also in accordance with the perspective development of the society and the State.

Presently 17 branches of legislation have been identified which require legal Codes for their regulation.

However, codification is not the only instrument for systematization of legislation. It is necessary to use other instruments also, such as: consolidation which means unification of the norms of law to regulate certain relations within one single Act.

In this connection it might prove to be useful to introduce and give proper legal shape to the concept of “consolidated" or "comprehensive" law which will be regulating complex type of legal relations.

As for the codification, this highest form of systematization of law has to be used in a balanced and a very limited manner, and mainly in those branches of law which have already taken shape, in those spheres of homogeneous social relations where regulation by law may not be fully effective without such codification.

Adoption of any code has to be preceded by huge legislative and law-enforcement practices, thorough monitoring of such practices, their analysis and evaluation on a systemic basis. The branch of law that has to be codified must become “mature enough” for such codification.

Every society has got a complex system of socially significant interests. Such interests are through mechanisms of official and informal lobbying within the legislative process. As such, the phenomenon of lobbying needs to be given a legal shape, and, accordingly, it should regulate the relations connected with the preparation, discussion and passing of Bills by the Parliament.

It is necessary that legislative activity should involve widely and on regular basis public representatives, representatives of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and associations representing interests of private sector.

It is necessary to constantly improve and raise the level of technical side of law because the quality of normative legal Acts and on the whole the level of work culture while dealing with documents in the Government machinery is dependent upon this technical side.

Perfection of the mechanisms of legal regulation is, to a great extent, connected with wide use of information technology in the law-making and law-enforcement process.

In this connection in order to set up the basic components of the  infrastructure of "e-government”, to prepare and use effectively a databank of standard legal Acts it would be desirable to have a Reference Bank of Standard Legal Acts in digital format as an optimum measure. Simultaneously, it also necessary that to include in the legislation provision for electronic version of the standard legal Acts which will be a serious step in the direction of digitization of national laws.

Some more steps are required to be taken to improve the existing practice of legislation.

The contents and quality of the laws which are suited to the transformations taking in the country, can be ensured through effective functioning of institutions of the Government, and through constructive and dynamic interaction of the Legislature and the Executive.

Thus, what we need is a uniform legal policy based on modern tendencies of the growth of society, on the accumulated experience and scientifically based fundamental ideas about the short-term and long-term perspectives of the Kazakhstan State and the society.

 

2. The main directions of the evolution of national law

 

It is necessary to implement further the legal ideas and principles enshrined in the Constitution which should get reflected in the legislative, organizational and other types of measures being taken by the Government.

The Governmental and the social service institutions should concentrate their efforts on realizing the creative potential of the Fundamental Law of the country which exists in the Constitution throughout.

Improvement of legislation and law-enforcement activity has to necessarily follow the principle of supremacy of the Constitution, and the Acts of lower level ought to conform to the norms of the Acts of higher level.

There is a need of such systemic measures which would ensure rule of law in the country and stability of the legal system, as also gradual development of the national law as per the existing Constitution. A comprehensive approach to the legal policy will help in modernizing the entire legal base in the context of the overall strategy of development of the country, including the formation of a qualitatively new model of the governance based on the principles of performance, transparency and accountability, which will ensure protection of rights and freedom of citizens, interests of the society and the State.

 

2.1. The constitutional law is the foundation of the national legal system. Its gradual development is based on the principles and norms of the existing Constitution of Kazakhstan which was adopted as a result of the constitutional reform of the year 2007.

The ideas and principles as laid down in the Fundamental Law of the country, determine the basic directions and mechanisms of the development of national legal system, including the Constitutional law, in a long-term perspective. In other words, the most important task is to fully realize the principles and norms of the Constitution, and in the first place, in activities of the Government bodies and the functionaries of the Government, thus ensuring direct application of the Constitution, as also realization of  its potential through the current legislation and enforcement of law.

Observance and realization of fundamental principles concerning the activities of the Republic, as laid down in our Constitution (these are: social harmony and political stability, economic development for the welfare of all the peoples, patriotism, and deciding the most important questions of the State life in a democratic manner), will ensure steady socio-economic and politico-legal growth of the country.

The fundamental basis of the constitutional set-up of the Republic of Kazakhstan, sovereignty and unitary character of the State will be strengthened by making the constitutional legislation and practice of its application more perfect.

The prospects of the development of constitutional law are connected with making the existing constitutional laws more perfect which are the determining factor of the state structure, the unity of the State authority, they influence the mechanisms of functioning of its various branches and their interaction with each other under the strategic guidance, control and arbitration by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan who has been elected by the public.

One of the important mechanism of ensuring constitutional rule, exact interpretation of the principles and norms of the Constitution, formation of the guidelines of the national law and law-enforcement practice is to make the functioning of the Constitution Council more effective and to apply fully its normative provisions in the legal functioning of the State.

In order to further establish the rule of law in the country it is necessary, on the one hand, to achieve realization of the guarantee of Constitutional rights to the maximum possible extent, and, on the other hand, unconditional and full implementation of constitutional duties by all the Government bodies, by the officials, citizens and organizations.

For ensuring human rights and freedoms in accordance with our Constitution it is necessary to create such conditions that would guarantee equality of rights and freedoms irrespective of birth, social, official or property status, sex, race, nationality, language, religion, beliefs, place of residence or other any criteria.

In the given context the role of legal mechanisms in the preservation and strengthening of the inter-ethnic harmony, maintenance of unity of the multinational peoples of Kazakhstan is going to increase.

Kazakhstan is a secular state characterized by religious peace and harmony where the rights of believers and non-believers are equally respected and observed.  The State does not interfere in religious activities, on the other hand, it has to interact with all the religions and faiths and has to protect the rights of citizens with regard to freedom of religion for which there should be an in-built effective state policy.

There is need of further perfection, observance and uniform application of the legislation on freedom of worship with regard to regulating the missionary activity, distribution of religious products, and registration of religious organizations.

In modern conditions the factor of gender equality in the state and public life is going to play an increased role so that equal rights and equal opportunities for women and men are ensured.

Consistent and sustainable development of Kazakhstan as a dynamic and modern state with the high standards of the quality of life is possible only by activating the human potential, growth of enterprising spirit of citizens, strengthening of institutions of civil society.

In this connection it is necessary to create such legal instruments that may provide additional encouragement for the growth of institutions of civil society and opportunities for realization of citizens’ initiatives.

The status of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also needs to be defined more clearly, and the mechanisms of their legal regulation should take into consideration their special character. The social organizations may also be provided support by the Government.

Questions relating to dissemination of information also require legal regulation. On the whole, this activity and the mechanism of its legal regulation should be such that there is guarantee of freedom of speech, freedom of receiving and dissemination of information by any means unless prohibited by law and, at the same time, constitutional rights of inviolability of private life, personal and family confidentiality, confidentiality of correspondence, telephonic conversations and other communications should be observed, along with the observance of legal requirements pertaining to State secrets.

Growth of citizens’ initiatives is closely connected with the questions of local self-governance. This institution which stands somewhere between the Government and the civil society also needs to be strengthened. In particular, considering the experience gained in this area it may be necessary to distinguish, on the one hand, the functions of the Government and the local self-government, and, on the other hand, the organs of local self-government should be widely involved in the realization of those functions of the State which have local significance.

In this respect, in order to develop an effective system of public administration  and  self-governance further distinction should be made with regard to the activities, functions and responsibilities at different levels of the Government.

 

2.2. Development of governance in Kazakhstan is closely related with the legal aspect of administrative reforms which aims to create an effective and compact system of government machinery, to induct new technology in administration, and to improve the administrative procedures. All this pertains to regulating the administrative law or public administration and its main task is to ensuring effective functioning of Government machinery at all its levels. In this connection in the sphere of public administration the respective regulations should:

make a rational and clear-cut distinction of the powers and functions of various organs of power;

avoid, in view of market economy, unnecessary regulation by the Government, including various types of control and inspection;

regulate conditions and the manner of implementation of their respective functions by the Executive;

ensure and encoutrage interaction between the Government and the citizens and social organizations.

At the same time, under the present conditions when the role of Government in the regulation of economy is increasing it has become necessary to talk about widening the possibilities of Administrative Law and extending its regulating potential to new social relations.

The administrative law, as far as possible, has to take a different course rather than following the traditional approach in relations between the Governmnet, the citizens and non-governmental organizations which was earlier based on one-sided principle of authority. Even though it is not possible to totally reject the principle of “authority and subordination”, there is enough scope to expand the application of the principles of collaborative partnership, functional-client relations, and purely protective type of principles.

In this connection it is necessary to continue the work on simplification of procedures of registration, permit and license, avoidance of unnecessary interference of Government in the activities of commercial and non-commercial organizations.

It is necessary to improve the system of citizens approaching the Government bodies and officials as a form of their participation in the work of the Government and as a method of protecting their rights and freedoms. At the same it is also required that the range of services being provided by the Government should be expanded through e-governance.

At the same time it is also necessary to regulate the relations with regard to the citizens approaching the non-governmental organizations on matters concerning protection of their rights and lawful interests. Such regulations should mention a time-frame of examination, fixing of responsibility of the organizations and their staff for examining the applications of the users of their services.

In this way, the modern administrative law covers not only the relations between the State and the Government. The administrative law also takes into its orbit the relations of Governmental institutions with the citizens and organizations while providing public services, i.e. government services. In this matter the legal nature of Government services differs from the usual functions of the Government, as it was noted in the corresponding decision of the Constitution Council.

In this way a new institution of administrative law is emerging for regulating the system of providing services of the Government to the citizens and social organizations. A proper legal basis is required for ensuring the functioning of such an institution.

For full-fledged introduction of standards of providing Government services there is need to have adequate administrative-legal regulations. It is also necessary to widen the scope of Government services, to introduce of effective external control in their execution using the latest technology.

Development of the administrative law needs to be looked upon not only as the traditional vertical relations between the authority and the subordinate but also through the prism of social interests which often have dissimilar directions.

The administrative law is helpful in implementation of the rights of the citizens and organizations as guaranteed by the State in so far as ensuring and protecting these rights is in the public interest of the Government.

In this matter the subjects of the administrative law (various organs and officials of the Government, organs of local self-government) are the carriers of public interest whose task is to protect and realize the rights and lawful interests of the citizens and organizations.

In other words, protection and realization of the rights and lawful interests of the citizens and organizations which have been raised to the rank of public interest can be considered as the modern contents of the rights protection function of the administrative law.

In modern conditions marked by the multiple complications of social life a sort of mixed relations are also emerging as a result of which it is becoming necessary to decide the questions relating to the limits of application of administrative law, its relations with other branches of law, and in the first place, relation of the administrative law with civil rights in the case of emergence of mixed type of (administrative-civil) legal relations.

Control and inspection of Government bodies being, on the one hand, functions of public administration, and, on the other hand, being the methods of ensuring legality, continue to remain highly relevant questions of administrative law.

The Constitution Council had decided the question of the powers of control and inspection by Government bodies in its resolution relating to this question. It was stated that in our country there are no Constitutional limitations in assigning to the Government bodies the authority of control and inspection within the limits of their competence. That is to say besides Public Prosecutor other Government bodies can also be entrusted with the authority to inspect.

In this way, along with inspection by Public Prosecutor’s office it is also authorized that the Government officials may conduct administrative inspection of unsubordinated subjects, i.e. citizens and organizations, in order to ensure observance of legalities in those spheres of activity which are regulated by administrative law and also using measures of administrative compulsion as provided for in the law.

All this means that the purpose of administrative inspection is to ensure that the provisions of administrative law are being observed properly, without harming the rights and legal interest of the citizens and organizations.

Future directions of making the Government control and inspection more perfect are connected with:

optimization of the system of control and inspection departments;

streamlining and reducing the range of control and inspection powers not only with respect to entrepreneurs but also with respect to the other subjects of law;

raising the level of legal regulation of administrative-inspection activity.

Relations in the sphere of Government service also come under the regulations of administrative law. The following priorities are being proposed in respect of administrative law pertaining to Government service:

more clear-cut distinction between political and administrative Government service;

formation of new institutions of human resource management and modernization of the existing ones serving the requirements of Government service;

introduction of new methods of selection for Government service on the basis of professional and personal qualities of candidates;

application of new principles of payment for services and motivation;

induction of modern systems for result-oriented assessment of the work of Government employees.

An important component of the administrative law is the law of administrative dereliction which requires updating of legislation on administrative violations and such law should be based on the principle that the Constitutional norms of human rights and freedoms and also those of citizens are recognized as being directly in force, and they should determine the essence, contents and application of such laws.

The legislation on administrative violations should, as far as possible, be directed towards restoration of infringed law, and forewarning of legal conflicts in the society through administrative-legal measures. In this regard while formulating administrative-legal sanctions (punishment) it would be necessary to rigorously follow the principle of their commensurability to the degree of social danger and the nature of violation of law.

It is necessary to clearly distinguish the powers of courts and non-judicial departments in dealing with cases of violation of administrative law. In this regard the idea of extending the powers of courts for giving administrative punishment continues to be relevant, as also the idea of the adversarial principle in the administrative judicial procedures.

With regard to the administrative dereliction law the questions of a more clear-cut distinction of various legal relations which are protected by the laws of administrative dereliction continue to be highly relevant, and accordingly there is need to make a clear distinction between administrative-legal and criminal-legal punishment.

The other direction is the development administrative-procedural law culminating in Code of Administrative Procedure. In this matter also there is need to clearly define the regulations of administrative-procedural legislation. In this context the questions of legislative regulation of giving permission in the concrete cases of administrative lapses is fully relevant.

In the context of evolving administrative-procedural law it may also be necessary to consider the question of administrative justice concerned with deciding controversial issues which come up in connection with official matters involving the Government and common citizens or organizations. That is, there is need to consider the question of procedural isolation and legitimization of deciding the conflicts of official nature.

Thus, the administrative legal procedure should take the shape of a full-fledged form of justice just like the criminal and civil legal procedure.

 

2.3. Next comes the tax legislation which also needs to be improved.

Well-evolved and clear-cut tax laws are an important precondition for the creation of a favourable investment climate for attracting domestic and foreign investments. In this connection the tax legislation should be directly connected with the industrial-innovative strategy of the country – it should promote development of non-raw material sectors and bring new technologies to the country.

The common global trend is to reduce the tax burden. While improving the tax legislation it would be advisable to make use of the advanced experience of other countries which is based on the following commonly accepted principles of taxation:

number of taxes should be, as far as possible, minimum;

expenditure to be incurred on tax-collection should also be minimum;

the taxes should not come in the way of competition;

the taxes should correspond to the structural policy of the Government in the economic sphere;

the taxes should be aimed at proper distribution of income;

the taxation system should avoid double taxation.

It would be advisable to consider the question of introducing the system of consolidated taxation under which one or a number of taxes are paid by the parent company on behalf of a group of interrelated enterprises, and in such cases the group of interrelated enterprises is taken as a single tax-payer for the given tax.

It is necessary to continue the work on simplifying tax liability, reforming certain types of taxes, and motivating certain categories of tax-payers to clear their taxes.

Customs legislation ought to become more and more simple and the customs procedures ought to be harmonized so that anomalies in the customs rules and procedures are removed that may, otherwise, come in the way of developing international trade and exchange; removal of such anomalies will promote international cooperation.

It is necessary to persist with improving and increasing the effectiveness of customs rules and procedures in order to remove unnecessary administrative barriers; it is also necessary to ensure predictability, consistency and transparency in the application of customs rules and procedures; the concerned parties should be provided with all the necessary information; there is need to adopt such modern methods of customs administration, as control based on risk management and auditing; maximum use of information technology should be made; it would be desirable to introduce international customs standards.

One of the important tasks of national law is to ensure modernization of the system of financial control by the Government because such control exercised by the Government is an efficacious instrument which can ensure the effectiveness of the process of management of assets of the Government, and, in the first place, the financial resources. In this respect it is necessary to strengthen the legal and also procedural bases of the functioning of the activities of Government departments concerned with financial control.

An effective Government policy in the sphere of natural monopolies and regulated markets, to a great extent, depends upon the regulatory and legal framework which should be aimed at stimulating the financial-economic activities of the regulated subjects of natural monopolies, creation of suitable conditions for increasing capital investments in the assets of such subjects and to motivate them to increase the productivity and reduce the expenditure and improving the quality of their services.

It is also necessary to improve the legal basis which determines the very foundations of Government regulations and control of those activities which come under monopoly of the State, as also the very basis of healthy competition with the protection and support of the Government.

 

2.4. The civil law of Kazakhstan has passed through several stages. The present Civil Code, being the largest codified act of Kazakhstan, has absorbed the ideas of modern civil law. This Code has laid down the basic principles of regulating commodity-money relations: equality of the types of property and its inviolability, freedom of agreement, equality of the subjects of civil circulation. On the basis of the Civil Code the basic set of laws for creating conditions of market economy was formulated.

In the present stage of evolution of Civil Law the problems of correlating public-legal and private-legal methods of regulating social relations have come to occupy foremost place, and as an offshoot of this - the limits of Government interference in private entrepreneur activities.

It would be necessary to optimize corelation between the civil law and other branches of law taking into consideration public-legal and private-legal interests; in this regard it should be made clear that any such relation that may affect national security will come under the sphere of public-legal relations, and it shall not be regulated by means of any legal agreement.

It is necessary to go ahead with the work on expansion of applying the principle of discretion which gives the opportunity to those who are participating in a case to use their material and procedural rights as per their discretion. However, the principle of discretion should not be made applicable to such civil legal relations that may have a bearing on public interests.

There is a need to consider the question of defining in terms the concepts of “refusal from one’s right’ and “refusal from using one’s right” and the consequences of both these kinds of refusals. This becomes important for deciding the questions of civil legal personality.

A very relevant problem concerns the legal significance of activities agreed to between the participants of commercial relations that may affect either public interests or interests of any third party which is not participating directly in such activities.

It is very important to define the concept of affiliated deals, and it should be kept in mind that such deals should not have been prohibited by the law but in some cases as per the prescribed law they can be scrutinized preliminarily. Establishment of the fact of affiliation should serve as the basis to recognize the deal as not valid on the request of the person whose legitimate interests have been violated by such a deal.

It is necessary to examine the status of joint stock companies taking into consideration their legal nature and the complexity of the questions to be decided, including also in the context of so-called “public corporations”. The possibility of using the organizational-legal form of joint stock companies as non-commercial organizations has to be decided at the conceptual level.

It is also to be considered in how all sorts of securities which are in civil circulation can be included in the Civil Code.

The practice of applying civil legal norms has been found to be insufficient for determining composite losses caused by violation of civil laws. In this connection it would be appropriate to device a system for determination of real losses.

The practice of treating deals as invalid needs to be made more perfect.

It is also necessary to conceptualize the applicability of bilateral restitution in the case a deal becomes invalid, if the party acquiring the goods under the deal is innocent and from whom the said good cannot be acquired under conditions foreseen by the law.

Thus it is necessary to define clearly the concept of deals, their composition and consequences for non-fulfillment of deals.

The civil law should also ensure proper balancing of interests of those owners of property who have lost the right of ownership as a result of unjustified actions of third party and of those who have acquired the property honestly.

As shown by practice, it also necessary to legally widen the types of proprietary rights and include there the concept of servitude.

It is also necessary to examine the question of widening the criteria of emergence of proprietary rights. In this regard not only the composition of proprietary rights but also the norms of using various kinds of such rights also need to be specified.

It is also necessary to further sort out, as per international requirements, the questions of participation of Government in the matters of civil-legal relations and waiving of immunity in the sphere of private-legal relations while maintaining the immunity of the Government in performing public duties.

In order to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship it would be proper to consider inclusion of agents amongst the subjects of the civil law and to regulate the questions relating to agent agreements which are widely practiced in property transactions.

Measures for improving the general and specific norms of the Civil Code about the duties are also required to be taken.

Serious attention has to be paid to modify the standard legal acts concerning the intellectual property rights in accordance with international standards in this area, at the same time keeping in mind our national interests.

Legal regularization of the procedure of bankruptcy, in particular bankruptcy of individual entrepreneurs also needs to be improved.

 

2.5. Financial laws should ensure a favourable climate for development and functioning of the financial market of Kazakhstan, protection of the rights of users of financial services; they should help to create equal opportunities for the activities of financial organizations, and support honest competition in the financial market.

Taking into consideration the tendencies of the growth of world economy as well as national economy the financial legislation should give priority to improvement of supervision process, based on monitoring of financial stability of banks, assessment of potential risks, formation of a flexible regulatory procedure, prompt response to difficult issues of banking operations, and bringing the system of supervision of financial organizations closer to world standards.

Legal regularization of the market of securities should be directed towards further development of competitiveness of the national market of securities, creation of favourable conditions for its participants, expansion of the base of issuers and lineup of financial instruments, development of investors’ base, and protection of the interests of investors.

In order to encourage collective investment and at the same providing protection of rights and lawful interests of the share-holders and shares of investment funds it becomes necessary to improve the legislation regulating the activities of investment funds.

The other important aspect of the growth of the market of securities and providing protection to the rights and lawful interests of the investors is the creation of a well-organized market of securities that would function in a stable and transparent manner.

It is desirable to create through legislation favourable conditions for the functioning and development of national finance market, for protection of the rights of the users of financial services, and promote honest competition in the financial market.

A modern system of compulsory and voluntary insurance has been introduced in Kazakhstan, and now there exists a full-fledged market of insurance services. However, in view of the global context of development of insurance services there is a need to have proper laws for which the systems of insurance in other countries as also the national law-enforcement practices have to be taken into account. While deciding the legal questions of the system of insurance in the context of active development of electronic commerce there is also the need to develop Internet-Insurance for which proper legislation will be required.

An important instrument of market economy is the valuation activity which also requires to be constantly regulated through proper laws. In this connection a wide range of organizational-legal measures are required to be taken which have to be directed towards:

fixing Government standards of valuation;

bringing the valuation activity at par with international standards;

improving the Government system of regulating and self-regulating the valuation activity.

 

2.6. The Constitution of Kazakhstan clearly states the basic social laws and principles for building up a social welfare State. In this connection one of the basic tasks of the law is further formulation of operative mechanisms for ensuring social rights and implementation of a modern social welfare policy.

The social rights policy of the Government, being complex and multifarious, is directed towards solving a whole range of socially significant problems. These include, especially, legal regulations of education and health, providing employment and social protection to citizens, protection of environment, and prevention of extraordinary situations.

In the present conditions of market economy, labour market and the problems of providing employment to citizens the question of employer-employee relations has become very much relevant. Therefore, the labour law requires to be updated regularly on the basis of the experiences of its implementation and regular analysis, and also taking into consideration international experience in this area.

In this regard differentiation of labour and social welfare laws has to be further worked out depending on the nature of labour activity and working conditions. The questions of expanding the sphere of application of the instruments of social partnership have also to be further worked out.

Legislation pertaining to social sphere has to be flexible in such a way that it takes into account the dynamics of the priorities of the social welfare policy of the Government, expansion of the list and criteria of social welfare programmes, and creation of new forms of participation of citizens for deciding where to direct the resources for social welfare. The level of social protection and social benefits will have to be reviewed from time to time depending upon the financial position of the Government for which proper legislation is a constant requirement.

Some of the future directions for developing social legislation are: utilization of the available and creation of new secure financial instruments which could be used for floating of pension shares; improvement of the system of social protection of certain categories of citizens, including such persons for whom social payments are the only source of survival.

In our country where in some regions the ecological situation is very grave and complex it is most necessary to develop and improve further legislation for protection of nature, and such legislation should be in harmony with international obligations and standards.

In order to make the nature protection activity more effective it is necessary to clearly distinguish, on the one hand, the mechanisms of legal regulation of the use of natural resources, and, on the other hand, protection of natural resources.

The nature protection legislation should motivate rational use of natural resources and observance of ecological norms, development of ecologically clean products, and ecologically safe conduct of citizens.

There is a need to update and consolidate numerous Acts meant to regulate relations under extraordinary situations connected with nature and technology, civil defence, fire and industrial safety; this will help to raise the quality and level of legal regulations in these areas of social relations.

 

2.7. The civil procedure law is meant to ensure accessibility of justice, maximum realization of rights of the participants of civil procedure of the court, timely protection and restoration of infringed rights and liberties of individuals, interests of the society and the State.

To achieve these objectives the civil procedure law needs modifications in the following directions:

 1) determining the ways and means of ensuring accessibility of justice that will give opportunity to the citizens to exercise realization of their right to defend in the court;

2) giving legal shape to the principles of justice, impartiality, extending the application of principles of contentiousness, as also restoration of the principle of continuity of judicial examination in civil cases;

3) deciding the jurisdiction of cases to be put under specialized courts on the basis of moving from the exclusively subjective principle of determining jurisdiction to the subjective subject-matter jurisdiction, that is taking into consideration categories of subjects involved in the orbit of the case, and also depending upon the character of legal relations;

4) expanding further the simplified procedure of civil justice which may include extending the sphere of applying mandatory procedure, and also simplification of legal procedures in the cases coming under the jurisdiction of specialized courts;

5) optimizing the stages of preparing a case for judicial examination in order to ensure faster hearing and decision of civil cases;

6) extending the possibilities of realization of its powers by the court of appeal with regard to taking a new decision on a case (in essence, re-examination of the case) with the purpose of accelerating final settlement of the case and ensuring realization of the right to lodge a complaint against judicial acts;

7) excluding the possibility of unnecessary formalities in juridical proceedings in civil cases which may also include the types, structure and contents of judicial decisions;

8) specifying various ways and means of reaching a compromise between the parties of individual legal conflicts (mediation, intermediation etc.) through settlement in court or out of court settlement, including the obligation of discussing the possibility of using conciliatory measures at the time of preparing the case for judicial examination, and also developing extrajudicial forms of defending the civil rights.

2.8. The most important link in the legal policy of the State is the criminal policy which is being improved through comprehensive and interrelated modifications of criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal executive law, and also through law enforcement.

Assessing the present state of criminal law we can state that it is gradually developing in right direction. The existing Criminal Code is a sufficiently effective instrument for fight against criminality and criminal-legal protection of the rights and liberties of citizens, the interests of the State and the society.

Further development of the criminal law should take place with the considering of two vectors of criminal policy. Humanitarian approach should be adopted, mainly, in respect of those persons who have committed a small or medium type of crime for the first time, and also socially vulnerable groups of people, like: pregnant and lonely women who have to look after minor children, minors, and persons of very advanced age. On the other hand, it is necessary to strictly follow the criminal policy with regard to those persons who are guilty of serious and particularly serious crimes and who try to hide themselves from the criminal prosecution, and also in cases of repetition of offences.

The most important direction of development of criminal law is determination of possibilities of phased reduction of the sphere of application of criminal repression by widening the conditions of exemption from criminal punishment, in the first place, with regard to those persons who do not pose a big social danger (minors, persons who have committed negligent crime, other persons in whose cases there exist attenuating circumstances).

It is also important to make the criminal law in conformity with international treaties which have been ratified by Kazakhstan. In particular, what is meant is not only decriminalization, but also the opposite process of criminalization of certain kinds of infringement of laws, and also introducing criminal responsibility of legal entities for certain kinds of crimes which may include ecological and economic crimes and corruption.

Thus, the criminal policy of the Government should have the following directions:

further decriminalization of law violations which do not pose big social danger by shifting them to the category of administrative lapses, increasing the administrative responsibility for committing such lapses, and also reexamination of the degree of graveness of certain kinds of crimes by attenuating punishment for them, i.e. depenalization;

increasing the criminal responsibility for crimes committed against minors, encroaching upon their rights and legal interests, for crimes committed as a member of an organized criminal group or criminal community, and repeated crimes;

widening the scope of application of criminal punishments other than confinement, including exemption from certain kinds of punishment in the form of confinement or reduction of maximum period of confinement;

imposition of  fine as a kind of effective measure of criminal punishment and possibility of extending its application;

establishment of commensurability of punishments as per the articles of the Criminal Code which have been treated as belonging to the same category of gravity, and their correspondence to the principle of justice of punishment;

introducing measures of Governmental coercion as an alternative to criminal punishment;

continuing with gradual reduction of capital punishment;

improving the institution of condoning criminal responsibility, condoning the punishment, and conditional premature release from imprisonment.

Further improvement of criminal law is concerned with qualitative refinement of laws – the law which limits the Constitutional rights and liberties should correspond with the requirements of legal exactness and forewarning of consequences, i.e. its norms should be formulated with sufficient degree of clarity, and they should be based upon such clear-cut criteria that it should be possible to distinguish with full certainty the good conduct from unlawful conduct that would exclude the possibility of arbitrary interpretation of the provisions of law.

 

2.9. An effective criminal policy of the State is impossible without the optimal model of criminal justice. Therefore, while talking about the prospects of development of the laws of criminal procedure it would be appropriate to emphasize that the present Criminal Procedure Code of Kazakhstan has basically brought the system of criminal justice at par with the main features of a modern democratic and law-governed State. The main objective behind law-making is to formulate laws of criminal procedure based on the recognition of Constitutional norms about the rights and liberties of man and citizens as being directly in force which determine the meaning, contents and application of laws and also ensure justice.

That is why development of the laws of criminal procedure have to give priority to consistent realization of the fundamental principles of criminal legal proceedings which require protection of human rights and liberties.

For this purpose optimum legal mechanisms have to be worked out that would ensure effective application of laws of criminal procedure and laws of operational-detection activity in order to expose the crimes faster and fully, to expose and fix the criminal responsibility of the persons committing crimes, to undertake proper judicial examination and proper application of the criminal law.

The legally prescribed procedure in criminal cases must strictly ensure protection of the accused from baseless allegations and condemnation, illegal abridgement of human rights and liberties, immediate and full rehabilitation of the accused in case of illegal allegations or condemnation; it should also help to strengthen lawfulness and order, forewarning of crimes, and inculcation of respectful attitude towards the law.

An important task is strict observance of laws, human rights and liberties while carrying out search operations. In this matter there is need to strengthen the system of guarantee of human rights and liberties, to ensure inviolability of personal life, fixing responsibility for unlawful use of any means and methods while carrying out search operations.

It is necessary to take steps for further developing the adversarial principle of the parties of prosecution and defence in the criminal procedure.

Thus, improvement of the law of criminal procedure should take the following main directions:

simplification and improvement of the efficacy of the criminal process, including simplification  of the procedure of pre-trial investigations;

legal regulation of pre-investigation checking and fixing of its limits;

creation of conditions for expanding the application of measures of restraint, as an alternative to arrest, including bail;

gradual introduction of new institutions of restorative justice based on reconciliation of the parties and compensation of the harm caused;

possibility of expanding the categories of criminal cases for which criminal pursuit and prosecution in the court could be carried out in private manner or private-public manner;

gradual expansion of the categories of criminal cases which can be examined by the court with the participation of the jury;

further improvement of the mechanisms of providing qualified legal help in criminal cases not only to the accused and suspects but also to sufferers and witnesses.

 

2.10. The following set of measures are required in the correctional sphere, i.e. criminal-executive sphere.

In order to minimize involvement of citizens in criminal judicial matters and for economy of measures of criminal repression it is necessary to create suitable conditions for wider application of criminal-legal measures which are not connected with isolation from society. In this respect in the legislation and courts it is required to develop such approaches in which the choice of the kind and measure of criminal-legal impact would, primarily, be based on the data about the most plausible effectiveness with respect to concrete persons.

At the same time for more active application of measures by the courts in which confinement is replaced by some other alternative it is necessary to make the execution of such alternatives more effective for which institutional development of a specialized body responsible for executing such measures is required.

Considering the fact that confinement continues to be the main form of punishment, it is, at the same time, necessary to enhance the educative component of confinement in which, as of now, the component of penal confinement predominates. In particular, it is necessary to further develop the contents, forms and methods of corrective-educative treatment of the convicts on the basis of the principle of individualization of execution of punishment.

It is also very much relevant to deal with the problems of keeping the confined convicts occupied by involving them in socially useful work and/or teaching them, resocializing them, which may also include anti-narcotic and anti-alcoholic education or other forms of social activity.

Besides retaining and ensuring very high standards of discipline and order in the correctional institutions, it is also necessary to intensify measures for inclusion of psychological and educative contents during the period of punishment; the status of the correctional staff also needs to be raised, and they should be provided social and legal protection.

Along with this it is equally important to provide security to the persons in the place of confinement, observance of their rights and legal interests. In this sphere it would be most appropriate to gradually shift to chamber system under which during day-time the convict has the opportunity to move around and communicate with other prisoners within the boundaries of confinement and during night he/she would be isolated in a separate cell.

Maintenance of balance between the interests of the society and the State concerning the punishment of the guilty and observance of their rights and legal interests during the service of punishment is possible through the established mechanisms of social control, and special attention has to be paid for developing these mechanisms.

It is equally important to raise the level of medical facilities for the persons undergoing confinement, in particular the system of prevention of ailments of those persons who are serving criminal punishment.

Proper measures are required for formulating a well-directed policy of the State for resocialization of the citizens who have been released from confinement as full-fledged members of the society.

On the whole the system of executing criminal punishments has to be developed in the direction of bringing it closer to the commonly recognized international standards.

 

3. The main directions of the development of law enforcement and judicial systems and human rights institutions

 

3.1. After the independence of Kazakhstan a human rights system has been developed in the country which is functioning very effectively in consonance with the requirements of a democratic and law-governed State.

The human rights activity of the State needs to be developed and improved further. In this connection the main priorities should be: fight against criminality, ensuring rule of law and social security, protection of human rights and liberties, ensuring inevitability of the Government’s response to any violation of law, quick and full detection of crimes, exposure and fixing of criminal responsibility on the persons committing the crimes, prevention of offences, and interaction with common citizens to fight against criminality.

In order to solve these problems it is necessary not only to strengthen the law and order machinery, to improve the ways and methods of their functioning, it is equally important to ensure stability of personnel policy, to raise the qualification standards and discipline of the staff of law enforcement bodies.

The nucleus of the law enforcement machinery is the Office of the Public Prosecutor.

It is necessary to improve the supervisory function of the Public Prosecutor’s Office which is its main function.

The procedural system of various branches of the Prosecutor’s Office needs to be improved.  It involves increasing the role and responsibilities of the Public Prosecutor at the pre-trial stage which may include investigation of those criminal cases by the Prosecutor’s office where the crimes pose a serious social threat and are of a complex nature, and this should be treated as a part of the functions of criminal prosecution being carried out by the Prosecutor’s office.

The effectiveness of coordinating function of the branches of Prosecutor’s office with regard to law enforcement activity needs to be enhanced for which legal regulations may also be required.

The main functions of various departments of internal matters are maintenance of general law and order and providing security, fight against crimes towards individuals, property and other common types of crimes. Security and tranquility of the citizens, the state of criminality and the level of crime-related situation of the country depend upon the efficiency of the departments of internal affairs, and in this connection improvement of these departments should be concentrated in the direction of ensuring quick and adequate response to any criminal manifestations and prevention of law violations.

The organs of financial policing (Economic Offences Wing) meant for fight against economic offences and corruption-related offences have fully justified their role.

Under conditions of market economy the organs of financial policing have to continuously go on improving the ways and methods of their work so that they are in a position to deal effectively with economic offences and corruption which go on taking place in modern conditions. The financial police have to withstand against economic offences and corruption in a systematic manner, find out and remove the reasons and conditions leading to corruption. One of the main tasks of financial police is also to ensure safety of business and avoidance of unnecessary interference in business activities.

It is necessary to optimize the structure and functions of law enforcement department with the purpose of setting up of more effective organizational and managerial mechanisms and for effective distribution of functions; in this connection the question of relieving the law enforcement machinery from other unnecessary functions becomes very much relevant. Therefore, while carrying out administrative reforms in the law enforcement department it would be imperative to take into account the specific nature of its functions so that the measures taken should not lead to lowering of its law enforcement potential and weakening of its capabilities to counter criminality.

There should be common standards of rules and service regulations for the staff of the law enforcement department and special qualifications should be prescribed, like the qualifications prescribed for administrative posts in the Government; recruitment to the law enforcement department should be done on the basis of competitive examinations.

While it is necessary to gradually ‘demilitarize’ the law enforcement machinery to some extent, it would be desirable to retain the practice of giving military ranks and special ranks to those law enforcement personnel who are directly performing the basic duties and functions assigned to this department.

In order to ensure efficiency of law enforcement personnel it is necessary to set very clear criteria for assessment of their work, and such assessment should not be merely quantitative, it should have some parameters of quality too.

It is necessary to work constantly for improving the efficiency and for better organization of the activities of investigation machinery, and also to take steps to upgrade the procedural status of the investigator.

The system of giving powers to and performance review of area inspectors of Police, taking into consideration opinion of the locality to the maximum possible extent, needs to be improved.

It is also necessary to continue the work for timely introduction and proper implementation of legal norms concerning national security which also includes forewarning and controlling the spread of terrorism, ethnic and religious extremism, illegal migration, drugs addiction, drugs trafficking, human trade, cyber crimes, illegal manufacture and circulation of fire arms, international crimes involving corruption, including crimes related to illegal transfer of money.

A very important task of the law is to determine the fundamental basis of national system of protection of information, the main threats in this area, and mechanisms for implementation of a uniform policy of the Government with regard to information security.

 

3.2. The judicial system of Kazakhstan, on the whole, fulfills the requirements of ensuring effective judicial protection of human rights and liberties which are protected by the laws pertaining to the interests of organizations and the State.

Development of the judicial-legal system of Kazakhstan will be based on continuity and phasing, and it is assumed that it will take the following directions:

The main vector of its development is specialization of courts and judges, including development of juvenile courts, creation of specialized courts for examination of criminal cases; setting up of tax and other specialized courts is also possible in future. The juvenile courts should become the central link for the system of juvenile justice which is being created in Kazakhstan.

Based on the presently functioning administrative courts there is need to create in future a system of administrative justice which should examine public-legal disputes concerning case referrals about administrative lapses coming under the jurisdiction of general courts.

As a result of improvement of the judicial system duplication of functions under various judicial authorities will be ruled out.

Prospects of the development of judicial system are also connected with the possibility of stage-wise expansion of the limits of judicial control in pre-trial procedures.

A system of arbitration courts and tribunals will also be developed.

The society is interested in complete, objective and fair revelation of the activities of the judicial authority. For this purpose it becomes necessary to raise the level of transparency of the judicial system, in particular by providing more widely the information about the activities of the courts to general public.

Use of modern methods for providing judicial information is going to be helpful in implementing the principle of competitiveness in legal proceedings. A planned way of giving information about the judicial system will ensure that there exists a real information-based support for dispensation of justice, reduction of time period for examination of cases, and more effective implementation of court decisions.

Measures are required for further improvement of the system of selection of judges, and qualifications for the post of judges have to be made more strict because only professionalism and high moral qualities of judges are the basis of a qualitatively superior judiciary. Strict control is also required on the part of the community of judges so that judges observe the conditions of the code of judicial ethics, and they should react adequately and immediately against any violation of this code.

For strengthening the guarantees of freedom of judges the most important question is full realization of the requirements of the Constitution regarding financing of judges and providing them residences which “should ensure the possibility of complete and independent dispensation of justice” whereby it is presumed that the level of social protection of judges has to be raised gradually, and the courts have be provided with all the office and technical facilities within the financial limits of the Government.

At the same time, anyone found guilty of interfering with administration of justice, and showing disrespect to the court should bear full responsibility as prescribed in the law.

The concluding stage of judicial procedure is the implementation of court orders, and steps have to taken for their strict implementation. In this connection introduction of the institution of private bailiffs along with bailiffs of the Governmental can be considered as a significant measure in the direction of enhancing the efficacy of judicial procedure. Within the limits of the mixed model of execution of judicial decisions only the Government bailiffs should have the power to forcefully recover penalty for the Government and also from the Government.

It is necessary that the court orders should be strictly executed which also includes increased responsibility for evading execution of the court decisions, wider application of restrictive measures against debtors, and increased judicial control in enforcement proceedings.

 

3.3. Building up of a law-governed State in Kazakhstan requires that the specialized institutions concerned with the protection of human rights and liberties of citizens should be made more perfect.

An important mechanism for protection of human rights and liberties is the institution of Human Rights Authority. Creation of this Governmental human rights institution was a serious step in the direction of democratization of Kazakhstan. Experience shows that there is need to enhance the effectiveness of the activities of this institution.

Leading role in the protection of human rights and liberties is played by advocates because they are the nucleus of providing legal help to the citizens.

Exercise by citizens of their Constitutional right to get qualified legal help serves as a condition and guarantee of access to justice. The mechanisms of implementation of this right need to be made more perfect.

Introduction of trial by jury, transfer of sanction of arrest to the courts had a positive influence on the role of advocates. However, procedural rights of the advocate as an active participant of the criminal process require effective legal mechanisms for their realization.

The system of rendering legal help itself needs to be improved. In the first place it is necessary to improve the system of providing help to persons having low income.

It is also necessary to decide the problem of disproportionate availability of the services of advocates in urban and rural areas.

The system of payment to the advocates rendering legal help free of charge also needs some improvement. It would be desirable to make this system consolidated and transparent so that budget allocations earmarked for this purpose could be utilized more effectively.

Taking into consideration the experience of those countries where the institution of compulsory insurance of the responsibility of advocates exists, it would be worthwhile to examine the possibility of introducing similar system in our country too.

Another important task pertains to improvement of the activities of notaries. It is necessary to define through legislation the role of notaries as a part of legal infrastructure which is providing additional stability and legal security in civil transactions, proper protection of the rights and legal interests of citizens and organizations. The national model of notarial profession should ensure availability of notarial assistance throughout the country.

 

4. Legal support of foreign policy and foreign trade activities

 

International legal aspect of the legal policy of the Government in the present period of globalization is becoming more and more important. In this connection one of the major directions of this policy is providing legal support to the foreign policy and foreign trade activities.

Such activity which is aimed at protecting long-term national interests in the sphere of foreign policy and ensuring mutually beneficial bilateral and multilateral international cooperation requires adequate legal regulations of international significance.

It is necessary to continue work on making the national legislation conform to the accepted international obligations and international standards. While doing so, it is necessary to be primarily guided by internal requirements and priorities of national development.

For achieving the goals of foreign policy a well-balanced approach is needed for concluding international agreements and participation in international organizations, and this has to be preceded by proper analysis of forecasting socio-economic, politico-legal and other consequences of signing such agreements for the country.

Consultations with institutions and organizations of international law will prove to be useful in order to look after the interests of Kazakhstan internationally, as also for building up a secure and stable Central Asia and making this region more attractive and significant.

 

5. Legal education and legal publicity

 

An essential part of the legal policy is legal regulation of research and educational activities because these are an important precondition for industrial-innovative growth of the country and for uplifting its intellectual potential.

On the other hand, legal education and legal publicity, thereby meaning legal culture, form an essential component of research and educational activities. In this connection it is desirable to make the citizens legally conscious, and also develop legal awareness amongst Government employees. It is also desirable that publicity of law amongst masses should be made more broad-based in terms of its volume as well as quality through mass media, including Internet resources. It is also necessary to study more actively current problems of legislation and law enforcement, especially in those branches of law which are most concerned with the day-to-day life of the citizens.

One of the questions which is closely connected with organizational-legal measures concerns the legal education. The society as well as the Government needs qualified legal persons of a new type who should be patriotic-minded and are able to look after protection of human rights of the citizens, interests of the society and the Government. This type of approach can serve as the basis of our legal education.

It would be advisable to take the path of consolidation of the opportunities provided by the Government for solving the problem of preparing qualified legal personnel with different specializations as required in modern conditions. Such an approach will avoid wastage of Government resources, and will also improve the quality of trained legal personnel.

 

6. Conclusion

           

            Implementation of the guidelines laid down in the Conceptual Framework of Legal Policy will help to realize the basic ideas and principles of the Constitution of Kazakhstan in the context of the new stage of building up of Kazakhstan as a law-governed State.

Successful implementation of this Concept and accordingly the stability of the national law and functioning of legal regulations depend upon constructive interaction of all the branches of State power, the quality of decisions taken by the Government bodies and responsible attitude of Government officials.

Comprehensive development of the legislation of Kazakhstan and its successful implementation in accordance with the main directions of the legal policy of the country as enshrined in the Constitution will help to further strengthen the rule of law, observance of human rights and liberties, ensure sustainable socio-economic growth of the country, and strengthening of Kazakhstan Statehood.

 

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