Progress of cooperation in judicial branch discussed

The project is a joint initiative of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and United Nations Development Programme.

The members of the interagency working group were presented an overview of the project activities and its achievements over the given period. Particularly, the project presented the progress in terms of expanding the “E-SUD” e-justice system in first instance civil courts, as well as the current development of additional modules in appeals, cassation, and supervisory instances.

The project also presented the work being done to strengthen the capacity of judges and court personnel, as well as its efforts to provide policy advice. In this regard, a draft law of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On introducing changes and amendments into selected legislative acts of the Republic of Uzbekistan" developed by the project was specifically highlighted. The draft law resulted from a study aimed at harmonization of Resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Commercial Procedural Code. It is expected that these changes will also affect the laws of the Republic of Uzbekistan "On bankruptcy", "On arbitration ", the Tax Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as the rate of the state fee. The project also presented its work aimed at enhancement of citizen feedback mechanism and transparency of the judiciary, particularly, the planned redesign of Supreme Court’s official website.

Apart from the achievements of the project, the national partners also discussed some challenges and opportunities in project implementation, as well as the areas of potential cooperation. The representatives of the Supreme Court emphasized their readiness to support the upcoming project initiatives, as well as their significant interest in productive cooperation with international partners.

It should be noted, that the interagency working group consists of the representatives of the Supreme Court, Research center on democratization and liberalization of judicial legislation and enhancement of independence of the judiciary under the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Supreme Economic Court, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chairmen of Tashkent region and Tashkent city civil courts, Ministry for Development of Information Technologies and Communications, Tashkent State Law University, and UNDP.