Building pre-trial administrative justice in Uzbekistan
Author: Igor Tsay
Key messages:
• Uzbekistan's landmark Law on Administrative Procedures (LAP), adopted in 2018, remains almost entirely unenforced. Neither administrative bodies nor administrative courts systematically apply the law, leaving citizens and businesses without reliable legal protection against unlawful state decisions.
• Compensatory mechanisms such as presidential reception offices, ombudsman institutions, and ad hoc appeal councils cannot substitute for a functioning system of administrative appeal. They resolve individual cases without changing systemic administrative practice, thereby undermining legal certainty.
• Pre-trial administrative justice offers the fastest and most cost-effective path to enforcing the LAP and improving public administration. Unlike judicial reform, which may take decades, a well-designed administrative appeal system can deliver tangible results within several years.
• Success requires specialised jurisdictional units within administrative agencies, mandatory training of personnel in contemporary administrative law, and a phased transition to mandatory pre-trial appeal - but only once the quality of administrative complaint review is demonstrably adequate.
Igor Tsay (2026). Building pre-trial administrative justice in Uzbekistan. CPRO Policy Brief 2026-04. https://doi.org/10.70735/DIWB9280
