A new civil procedure law to establish specialised courts to handle investment disputes is being developed in Kazakhstan.
Supreme Court Judge Nurzhan Kaiypzhan at a recent briefing at the Central Communications Service (CCS) under the President of Kazakhstan announced that the investment court will be established.
“The draft code represents a transitional justice model of investment disputes. It envisages the creation of the investment board in the Supreme Court and the introduction of specialised staff in the court of Astana. It is expected that the board created in the Supreme Court will deal with disputes involving major investors, and disputes involving other investors will be considered in a special composition of the court of Astana,” Kaiypzhan said.
He noted that this model will also ensure the participation of foreign experts in the consideration of investment disputes.
“At the same time, the establishment of a specialised investment court to hear disputes involving investors and the Astana financial centre in the status of a regional court is being worked out. It is planned to form a panel on investment disputes as a court of appeal in the Supreme Court. To ensure efficiency of justice, the rulings of the court of appeals shall be determined final and not subject to appeal in the constitutional and supervisory procedure,” the judge said.
According to Kaiypzhan, all this will ensure an independent judicial system will hear investment disputes in the Astana financial centre and elsewhere based on the principles of the English law.
“It is assumed that such a court will operate on the basis of its own regulations, which will allow the implementation in Kazakhstan of new approaches to the resolution of commercial disputes. Within the framework of working out the issues of the creation of such a court, including the issue of its composition, we study the most successful relevant international experience of developed countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, and the United Kingdom,” he added.
