On July 24, the President signed a Decree “On additional measures of further improvement of the functioning of courts and increase of the efficiency of justice” No.УП-6034 (“Decree No.УП-6034”).
The Decree No.УП-6034 provides a number of changes in the justice system, according to which starting from 1 January:
- courts of general jurisdiction — the court of Karakalpakstan, regional courts and the Tashkent city court are formed replacing the regional and courts of equivalent status for civil, criminal and economic cases, with the preservation of the specialization of judges and the formation of judicial panels for different types of legal proceedings;
- authorities to consider cases of administrative violations are transferred to the courts for criminal cases;
- inter-district administrative courts specializing in cases arising from administrative and other public relations will start their work in regional centers and in Tashkent city. In this regard, district and city administrative courts will be abolished, and the administrative courts of Karakalpakstan, regions and Tashkent will remain.
Another important innovation in economic legal proceedings is the establishment of a judicial panel for the consideration of investment disputes and competition cases (the “Judicial Panel”). The Judicial Panel will consider investment disputes between individuals or legal entities that have invested at least USD 20 million and the State, as well as competition cases.
Major investors in investment disputes and parties in competition cases have an option to apply to this Judicial Panel as a court of first instance.
In addition, the Decree No.УП-6034 introduces the procedure of preliminary hearings by analogy with international practice.
Moreover, the organization of work of courts will now be determined based on the volume of work and population. In this regard, starting from 1 January 2021, the principle of “One court — one instance” is being implemented with the abolition of several judicial stages.