The KAZGUU Center for International Law (KCIL) is a newly established research center focusing on international law. KCIL was created in October 2016 as part of internationalization strategy of KAZGUU University in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a dynamic country with active participation across different platforms of international law and international organizations. The Presidency of OSCE and the recent election of Kazakhstan as a temporary member of UNSC for period 2017-2018 are examples of Kazakhstan’s active standing in international arena. Kazakhstan is also among the newest WTO members.
KCIL will rely on this positive dynamics to develop strong research and expertise potential in different disciplines of international law. The objective of KCIL is to become the hub for interdisciplinary research in the field of international law in Astana. It aims to function as a bridge between international legal scholarship and Kazakh international law community.
KCIL’s team is composed of researchers with expertise in public and private international law. KCIL members are also involved in teaching of international law at KAZGUU High School of Law and KAZGUU Institute for Postgraduate Education and International Relations. KCIIL works in close association with the Zimanov Academy at KAZGUU and with the department of international law of KAZGUU’s School of Law.
I- Kazakhstan and International Law
States are the main subjects of international law and they are at the same time the utmost international law-makers. Moreover, relations between international law and domestic legal systems play defining role in the development or stagnation of international law. From this perspective, KCIL’s mission is to highlight dynamics of relationships and interactions between Kazakhstan and international law. The Center’s research will also cover international law practice of other Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. Some topics of interest in this framework are:
- Implementation of international law in Kazakh domestic system
- Position of national courts with respect to international law
- International law in Central Asia
- Engagement of Eurasian and Central Asian countries with international courts
II- International institutions, rules and values
Contemporary international law is characterized by an increasing focus on institutions, norms and values. Global norms and values that transcend national systems as well as different international legal regimes are among the defining characteristics of modern international legal order. The UN’s pioneering role in strengthening human rights law or its recent action in developing R2P discourse and practice illustrates well modern international law which relies on international organizations to promote global norms.
As a center based in Astana, Kazakhstan, our mission will be to create sensibility in Kazakhstan to contemporary debates around role of international organizations and global values. Secondly, Center will aim to present Kazakh perspectives on this aspect of international law to international audience.
- Future of multilateralismand global order
- Role of international and regional organizations
- Normative and human dimension of international law
- Kazak and Central Asian perspectives on international order
III- Global and regional economic governance
Since the end of the Cold War, institutions regulating the world economy have increased considerably in number and in importance. In that regard, the so-called “international economic law” is increasingly becoming a seminal field of international law, involving involves the regulation and conduct of states, international organizations, and private firms operating in the international economic arena. The study of global economic governance encompasses a wide range of international legal spheres, including international monetary law, WTO law, international investment law, international commercial arbitration, international tax law, international investment law, and sovereign debt and restructuring.
In parallel to global processes, a considerable part of inter-state economic and trade relationships are also increasingly regulated by regional institutions and mechanisms. Regionalism has been a constant feature in international economic law for many decades.
KAZGUU conducts scholarly research on a broad range of subjects that concern global economic governance and the law of international economic activity. The Center’s research focuses on the role of Kazakhstan in global and regional economic governance, and studies the contribution that international economic rules can bring to the country’s development.
Some examples of ongoing research on world economic governance include:
- A coherent investment protection policy: drafting a Kazakhstani BIT
- Challenges of regulatory and corporate governance in Central Asia
- Kazakhstan as a WTO member
- Legal aspects of Eurasianeconomicintegration
- Regionalintegrationprocesses in theworld
IV- Private International Law
The process of interaction of legal systems inevitably causes the various kinds of collisions, difficulties and challenges. One of the main problems here is to determine the applicable law which should regulate the private law relations complicated by a foreign element, when there arises the problem to determine: the law of what country should regulate specific private law relationship; whether the applicable law of the Republic of Kazakhstan or of a foreign country; if there should be applied a foreign law, how to determine its content and whether there are grounds for its non-use. As a result, there take place a mutual penetration to the legal space of the one state of foreign laws, foreign judgments and arbitral awards of another state.
The importance of solving the questions of determination of the applicable law is related to the fact that they permeate the entire branch of private international law, and they are considered to be concentrated complex issues of conflict regulation, which are considered to be the basic for all the institutes of the general and special parts of private international law.
In the cluster of Private international law KCIL’s research will cover the next main topics:
- Determination of the applicable law (application of conflict of law rules and application of foreign law)
- The modern private international law of Kazakhstan in the light of approaches of the continental and common law
- International commercial arbitration (legal reforms and their influence on the development of the institute of arbitration).
- Ikboljon Qoraboyev (PhD in Law, University of Toulouse Capitole) – Director of the Center. Ikboljon Qoraboyev is Director of the KAZGUU Center for International Law. He also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at KAZGUU High School of Economics and KAZGUU Postgraduate Studies Program. Priorly, he held teaching and research positions in Belgium, France and Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. in Public International Law from the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole in France. Mr. Qoraboyev obtained his LLM in International Law (2002) and LLM in European Law (2004) degrees from the University of Montpellier 1 and a B.A. degree in International Relations from the University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Mr. Qoraboyev also attended trainings at Central European University (Budapest), GW Law School (Washington, DC) and ULB (Brussels). Mr. Qoraboyev has published on post-Soviet international organizations and Central Asian regional integration. He presented papers at conferences in Belgium, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and US.
- Miras Daulenov (Phd in Law, The University of Wrocław) – Senior Research Associat. Miras Daulenov
Ph.D., LL.M, LL.B. The Deputy of Chairman of the Board – Director of the Academy of the Fundamental and Applied Sciences named after S. Zimanov
In 2006 he has completed a Master’s Degree Programme in Law at the East-Kazakhstan State University named after S. Amanzholov. In the period from 2007 to 2012 Mr. Daulenov studied International and European Law at the University of Wrocław (Poland) in frameworks of the International Scholarship of the President of the Republic Kazakhstan «Bolashak». The Ph.D. research was supported in part by the project of the European Union «Rozwój potencjału i oferty edukacyjnej Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego szansą zwiększenia konkurencyjności Uczelni». In June 2012 he successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis entitled «Movement of goods, persons, services and capital in international agreements of the European Union». In the period from 2009 to 2012 he practiced teaching the International and European Law at the Department of the International and European Law of the University of Wrocław. In the period from August 2012 to September 2015 he held the Chair of International Law the KAZGUU University.Membership:
The member of the Advisory Council under the Economic Court of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The member of the Advisory Council under the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The coach of the KAZGUU University’ team for participation in the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition.
The critical reviewer of the Wrocław Review of Law, Administration and Economics.
The critical reviewer of the Law and State journal. - Maigul Abilova (PhD in Law, KAZGUU University) – Senior research fellow. Maigul Abilova is a PhD in Jurisprudence. Spheres of scientific interests are: Private International Law, International Commercial Arbitration, English Law. She is an author of 23 publications in local and international academic journals, conference proceedings. She passed research internships at Bologna University (Bologna, Italy) and at Moscow State University (Moscow, RF). Knowledge of languages: Kazakh, Russian, English. Work experience (in different periods since 2007): Lawyer, Deputy Director of the Legal Department in commercial organizations, Chief Specialist of the Department of Justice. Since September, 2015 – senior lecturer of KAZGUU University. Since October, 2016 – senior research fellow in KCIL.
- Liliya Ispenbetova (LLM in International Law, KAZGUU University) – Research fellow. Liliya IspenbetovaResearch Fellow of the KAZGUU Center for International Law
LLM in International Law
L. Ispenbetova is a senior lecturer at the Department of International Law and at the Institute of post-graduate training at the KAZGUU University. Previous position is a lawyer in Astana Law Partners, LLP. Since September, 2016 she is enrolled in doctoral studies in the specialty “International law” of the KAZGUU University. Research interests: International Law, the Interaction of International and National Law, English Law. L. Ispenbetova is a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan Union of Lawyers. She has been published 47 scientific articles and a monograph “The responsibility of international organizations for internationally wrongful acts” (German publishing house «Lambert Academic Publishing»). E-mail: ispenbetova@gmail.com, l_ispenbetova@kazguu.kz. - Alberto Pecoraro (LLM in International Law, University of Edinburgh) – Research fellow. Alberto Pecoraro is a senior lecturer of International Law at KAZGUU University. He holds a LL.M in International Law from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Political Science from the University of York. He is completing his Licence de Droit at the St Louis University of Brussels. His research and publication interests lie in investment treaty arbitration, WTO law, and human rights law.