From July 25 to 28 a summer school on administrative justice will be held for 30 judges and 30 lawyers at Uzbekistan’s ‘Layner’ mountain resort complex, organized by the ‘Rule of Law Partnership in Uzbekistan’ project as jointly implemented by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, USAID and UNDP.

This conference’s objective is to develop its participants’ understanding of the nature of administrative justice, its difference from other types of proceedings, and the features of administrative justice in light of the Law ‘On administrative procedures’. The conference also serves to develop the participants’ skills in assessing administrative acts to determine their compliance with administrative procedures.

Uzbekistan’s administrative courts were established in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan ‘On measures to radically improve the structure and efficiency of the judicial system of the Republic of Uzbekistan’ No. UP – 4966, dated February 21, 2017. From the start of their operation, the administrative courts played an essential role in the democratizing and liberalizing of Uzbekistan’s government and administrative bodies, and in ensuring citizens could resolve grievances through legal avenues. The courts have been vital to increasing government transparency and openness, and to preventing corruption.

In the first quarter of 2019 the administrative courts reviewed 5,584 public disputes, 83 percent of these actions leading to restoring the rights of citizens and legal entities. These cases also resulted in disciplinary actions applied against 36 officials. These figures indicate that the administrative courts are effectively serving their purpose, but still their operation needs to be continuously refined and improved, thereby increasing the level of government transparency and accessibility for citizens and businesses. To maintain this positive development and to ensure continued delivery of high-quality justice, an adequate level of awareness, knowledge and skills is needed not just among the broader population, but also among judges and lawyers.

The summer school’s four days will include a presentation of the main directions of administrative and judicial reforms in Uzbekistan, as implemented over the previous year, in accordance with the Action Strategy on Five Priority Directions of Development of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021, and with Sustainable Development Goal 16.

Participants will become acquainted with the experience Uzbekistan has gained over the past year in terms of operating administrative courts, and the changing approaches being used to resolve public law disputes as implemented in connection with the recent Law ‘On administrative procedures’. They will also understand the challenges faced in developing administrative justice, and thus further strengthen their professional skills in analyzing administrative acts, to ensure their compliance with administrative procedures.

The Professor of Law Emeritus Howard Fenton from the US, and state adviser and assistant of the section of litigation of the State Council Emmanuel Prada-Bordenave (France) will, as foreign trainers, present the concepts that lie behind the world’s leading legal models of administrative justice procedures.