The President of Uzbekistan signed a new amended Law on Regulatory Legal Acts (Law), which entered into force on April 20, 2021.

The Law has revamped the procedure for drafting and adopting regulatory legal acts (legal acts) by making it more transparent and streamlined. Also, the Law includes an appendix setting out the unified methodology for the legal and technical design of draft regulatory legal acts together with further information and analytical materials (Unified Methodology) attached to them.

We highlight the main revamps of the Law below.

What is new?

The new Law regulates the right of citizens to adopt legal acts by way of a referendum, the procedure for which is established by a separate law.

Ministries, state committees, and departments may adopt legal acts if they are given such powers by legislative acts, legal acts of the President and the Cabinet of Ministers.

The law enshrines that by-laws cannot establish rules on issues that must be regulated by legislative acts (laws and resolutions of the chambers of parliament).

The list of documents approved by legal acts has been expanded and the areas of their application have been introduced. Regulatory acts now may approve regulations, instructions, rules, regulations, concepts, doctrines, programs (roadmaps), and other documents.

Also, tools for improving legislation with an experimental trial, and an assessment of the regulatory impact were included in the Law. According to the former, the body which has the right to adopt legal acts studies the effectiveness of the legal act by introducing it temporarily in a certain territory and/or circle of persons Based on the results of the experiment, a decision is made on the feasibility of adopting regulatory legal acts, or taking other measures to improve the regulatory framework.

Any changes in the stages of adoption of legal acts?

Each stage, starting with development, review, coordination and ending with the adoption of legal acts, has undergone specific changes, as follows:

1. Planning the preparation of draft legal acts

Planning for the preparation of draft legal acts is carried out within the framework of current (semi-annual and annual) and long-term (for a period of more than one year) plans (programs) for preparing legal acts, which are published on the official websites of state authorities/bodies entitled to adopt legal acts.

2. Initiating the preparation of draft legal acts

Individuals and legal entities have the right to make their proposals for the preparation of draft legal acts.

3. Preparing draft legal acts

The time limit for a developer of a draft legal act to prepare and submit a draft to the relevant body entitled to adopt legal acts cannot be less than two months.

4. Reviewing draft legal acts

The draft normative legal acts must undergo a mandatory legal and anti-corruption review.

The legal review is carried out both by the legal service of the developer or the body entitled to adopt legal acts, and by the Ministry of Justice (its territorial subdivision).

The anti-corruption expertise of a draft legal act is carried out by the developer and the Ministry of Justice, while the same review of current legal acts is carried out by the Ministry of Justice and other state bodies in the relevant areas of activity.

5. Coordination of draft legal acts

A draft regulatory legal act is subject to mandatory approval by interested state agencies and organizations, which is carried out electronically through a special information system. The Unified Methodology, depending on the legal relations regulated by a certain draft legal act, determines the bodies with which the draft legal act must be coordinated.

6. Submitting draft legal acts for adoption

The prepared draft legal acts are submitted to the body entitled to adopt the legal acts in the state language.

7. Adoption of legal acts

A legal act must be adopted in the state (Uzbek) language. Also, if necessary, the new legal act may be translated into other languages.

8. Monitoring and control

In order to further improve transparency of law-making and the quality of the adopted legal acts, the law has stipulated the right of citizens, citizens' self-government bodies, NGOs and mass media registered in Uzbekistan to monitor and control the implementation of legal acts in accordance with the Law "On Public Control".