哈萨克斯坦司法改革评述

Review of Judicial Reform in Kazakhstan

哈萨克斯坦三十余年的发展累积了大量社会问题,制度性腐败日益制约经济发展,因此推行了以消除腐败与权力寻租、资源及权力高度集中、财富分配不均等突出问题为目标的司法改革。2022年“一月骚乱”以后,托卡耶夫总统实施新政,建设“新哈萨克斯坦”,启动新一轮政治、经济、司法改革。司法改革主要围绕司法制度革新、司法保护向民众及企业倾斜、司法管理数字化等展开,提高检察机关监督职能、推进司法权独立、引入行政司法、司法管理数字化成为亮点,在规范法院院长权力、提高庭前和解、公正处理公民与国家机关纠纷、数字司法方面取得了突破性进展。与此同时,司法腐败和司法权不独立仍是司法体系中的顽疾,改革成效的释放尚需时日。至少从短期来看,改革并没有完全扭转民众对司法机关信任度低的局面。与制度优化和技术革新相比,法官队伍素质提升、法官思想观念进步需要更长的时间,或成为司法改革中最困难的部分。司法改革在哈萨克斯坦全面改革的大框架内进行,能否与其他领域改革同频共振,直接关系到司法改革的成败。

In the past over 30 years,a large number of social problems have occurred due to Kazakhstan's development.The institutional corruption increasingly restricts its economic development.As a result,a judicial reform has been adopted aiming at solving critical problems including corruption and power rent-seeking,high concentration of resources and power,in addition to uneven distribution of wealth.Since the January deadly protests in 2022,Tokayev,President of Kazakhstan,presented a large-scale program to create a“New Kazakhstan”,and a new round of political,economic and judicial reforms have been launched as well.The judicial reform mainly focuses on the innovation of the judicial system,tilting judicial protection to people and enterprises,and the digitization of judicial management.Improving the supervisory functions of procuratorial organs,promoting the independence of judicial power,introducing administrative justice,and digitizing judicial management have become highlights.It has made breakthroughs in standardizing power of court presidents,improving pre-trial reconciliation,fairly handling disputes between citizens and state agencies,and digital justice.Meanwhile,judicial corruption and lack of independence of judicial power are still stubborn problems in the judicial system,and it will take time for the effects of the reform to be felt.At least in the short term,the reform has not completely reversed the situation of low public trust in the judiciary.Compared with system optimization and technological innovation,it will take longer for the improvement of the quality of the judge team and the advancement of judges'ideas,which may become the most difficult part of the judicial reform.The judicial reform is carried out within the overall framework of Kazakhstan's comprehensive reform.Whether it can resonate with reforms in other fields is directly related to the success or failure of the judicial reform.