2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Evolution of Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law in Uzbekistan in light of International Legal Aid
| Project/Area Number |
19K13481
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| Research Institution | Nagoya University |
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Principal Investigator |
Ismatov Aziz 名古屋大学, 法学研究科, 特任講師 (90751206)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Legal cooperation / Constitutionalism / Uzbekistan / Central Asia / Human rights / Socialism / Traditionalism / Transition reforms |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the fiscal year 2022, the project is still half underway, given the slow reopening tendencies after the pandemic period. At the end of 2022, the author had a chance to finally restart a research field trip to Uzbekistan to conduct the originally proposed essential interviews with domestic legal scholars and policymakers. The author prepared several individual questionnaires for select interviewees who directly participated in the draft constitution project in 1991-1992 and several policymakers who participated in the following constitutional reforms, including the most recent - 2023 Constitutional reform.
Initial interviews have demonstrated that the drafting process in 1990 was spontaneous, and drafters had to deal with concepts of democracy, human rights, or private property unpreparedly and in a hurry. The key problem is that constitution integrated socialist, traditional, and many liberal ideas borrowed from Western constitutions (French, and the U.S.) and such concepts barely co-existed in practice.
The author discovered the involvement of several French and American experts in drafting the 1992 Constitution, in parts dealing with human rights and presidential power. Given the limited time, the author could not conduct some interviews and necessary archival search to discover the discussion and feedback on borrowed concepts.
Author also analyzed Japanese materials on legal assistance. Author made several conference reports and quality publications by Berliner Wissenschafts, Korea Legal Research Institute, Springer (ex. Dissemination of Human Rights in Central Asia).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The progress is slightly delayed, given that in the post-pandemic period, there is (1) a slow reopening of borders in Japan, (2) an inability to conduct necessary interviews and obtain archival data online, and (3) because of the public demonstrations in Karakalpak autonomy of Uzbekistan following the constitutional reform, which barred Author from traveling there and raising the topic of constitutional amendments and human rights with some actors.
The Author attended the Harvard Law School intensive training program, where he worked with several scholars dealing with post-socialist and authoritarian constitutionalism. Some research results were presented at international conferences in Tokyo, Nagoya, Stellenbosch, and Tashkent. However, the main work on obtained and planned interviews and proposed archival search is undone. The Author has yet to arrange another set of interviews and discussions locally and online in light of the 2022-2023 constitutional reform and involvement of foreign experts, public demonstrations in Karakalpakstan in 2022 (which has resulted in riots and revision of certain parts of the amended Constitution project), and the national referendum of April 2023. In particular, the 2022-2023 constitutional reform has changed nearly 70 percent of the constitutional text while transplanting many foreign concepts (such as Miranda rules, Habeas Corpus) from the U.S. Constitution and other Western constitutions. The data search on these novelties is yet to be continued further to understand why and how Uzbekistan will deal with novelties in practice.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The Author will continue to obtain and analyze the data to (1) reconstruct the picture of constitutionalism, focusing on the evolution of human rights and democracy concepts in Uzbekistan, with an additional look at other Central Asia, (2) re-conceptualize the interactions between the foreign donors (including Japan) and local legal scholars to understand the philosophy of each donor's legal project and the way it is positioned among local scholarly society, and (3) compare such trends with other trends from a wider Asian perspective to show how Central Asia invents own regional trend to appeal for its uniqueness and specific place in the international legal and political order.
Uzbekistan's government in 2022-2023 intensively borrowed various concepts based on consultations with several European and U.S. consulting agencies. The Author is now additionally working to set up connections with these actors to obtain more data.
Currently, the Author is summarizing the available material for a monograph on Central Asian law and society. This work will integrate the analysis of Central Asian (mainly Uzbekistan's) constitutional trends, existing debates, and comparative legal development. Specifically, the Author will focus on analyzing and discussing the origins of regional constitutional thought and existing conflicts between regional specific and borrowed or transplanted standards as well as their roots and specifics, focusing on human rights and democracy as offered by foreign legal donor actors' assistance (the U.S., European, and Asian states).
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| Causes of Carryover |
Given a slow return to pre Covid-19 pandemic life and slow lifting of relevant travel restrictions from Japan, it was only partly possible to utilize financial resources (travel-related expenses) to achieve research objectives of the project in the way it was intended by the initial plan. Hence it was impossible to set up several key meetings and obtain a direct access to the archival and legal institutions. Additional reason of impossibility to meet interviewees is because of public demonstration and riots in the western part of Uzbekistan in Summer 2022.
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Research Products
(11 results)
