Central Asian Law

LUND UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN

Rustamjon Urinboyev, Principal Investigator

Rustam Urinboyev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University. He is a principal investigator of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia,” which is coordinated by Lund University. Rustamjon works at the intersection of sociology of law and ethnography, studying migration, corruption, governance, and penal institutions in the context of Russia and Central Asia. His current research focuses on (1) migration, shadow economy and informal legal orders in hybrid political regimes, (2) corruption, informality and legal pluralism in Uzbekistan, and (c) informal hierarchies, religious orders and ethnic identities in Russian penal institutions. He is the author of Migration and Hybrid Political Regimes: Navigating the Legal Landscape in Russia (2020), published by the University of California Press.

Matthias Baier

Matthias Baier is an associate professor in Sociology of Law, Sociology of Law Department at Lund University. He is part of the Central Asian Law team and has as previous Head of Department worked with administrative and strategic issues of the project. He has been working with sustainable development issues, discourses on genetically modified organisms and comparing legal cultures. He is mainly working with theories on norms and has published Social and Legal Norms, by Routledge. His main interest in the Central Asian Law project is to run surveys and carry out empirical research on legal cultures in the countries covered by the project.

Elmurod Sobirov, Project Assistant

Chekhros Kilichova is a project assistant of the Central Asian Law project. She is a graduate of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Uzbekistan. Currently she is studying MSc in Economic growth, Population and Development at Lund University. Before joining the project, Chekhros gained work experience in public communications as well as project and programme management. Her main interests focus on economic governance and trade relations in Central Asian countries.

UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

Peter Finke 

Peter Finke is Professor for Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich and Co-director of the Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia (CASCA). He holds a PhD from the University of Cologne (1999) and a post-doctoral degree from the University of Leipzig (2006). Between 2000 and 2006 he was a Senior Research Fellow and Head of a Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle. He also served as a Visiting Professor at the University of New Hampshire (2002 to 2003), the Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara (2004 to 2006), and was President to the Swiss Anthropological Association (2012-2017).

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM

Chris Thornhill

Chris Thornhill is Professor of Law at the University of Manchester. His work is broadly concerned with the sociology of public law, and his main interests are focused on the social foundations of constitutional change. He also has a strong interest in national security law. He teaches undergraduate courses in UK constitutional law and the sociology of law and supervises research to PhD level on the sociology of law, comparative constitutional law, and constitutional theory.    

MARMARA UNIVERSITY, TURKEY

Erhan Doğan

Prof.Dr. Erhan Doğan has been a researcher and lecturer at Marmara University Department of Political Science and International Relations since 2003. He teaches BA and Ph.D level courses on Comparative Politics, European Union, Turkey-EU Relations and Civil Society. Dr.Doğan has also supervised a number of PhD and M.A. thesis.  Dr.Dogan’s research activities are basically focused on the impacts of Turkey-EU interaction and its impacts over Turkish politics. The impacts of the EU travel visas over Turkish citizens’ political and travel behaviors is a research question that Dr.Doğan had conducted research on.  Dr.Doğan has also conducted researches on the increasing Civil Society/NGO involvement to Turkish Foreign policy, which is a byproduct of Turkey-EU engagement and developing capabilities and might of Turkey’s commercial and industrialist bourgeoisie, and also identity based social and political groups. Dr.Doğan, had been at Ohio State University, USA (1999-2000) and the Free University of Brussels-ULB, Belgium (2000) as a Ph.D. level visiting researcher, and Dublin City University, Ireland (2008-2009), Higher School of Economics, Moscow (2013), Jawaharlal Nehru University (2014), India  as a post-doctoral  researcher.

Nilay Ökten

Research Assistant, Nilay Ökten is an academic at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Marmara University. Her PhD thesis focuses mainly on the relationship between US interventionism, military, interest groups and politics in Latin America. She worked in the field of political economy and she is interested in Latin American politics and colonial history. 

Beyhan Çağrı Tuzcuoğlu

Beyhan Çağrı Tuzcuoğlu is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Marmara University. He has been working as a research assistant at Marmara University, Department of Political Science and International Relations since 2014. He graduated from Istanbul University with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University. His main research interests are neoliberalism, governmentality and world-systems analysis.

Melih Kölük

Melih Kölük is a research assistant at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Marmara University, Turkey. He is a master student at the Department of Politics and International Relations, İstanbul University, Turkey. His research interests are in the fields of Political Phsycology, Political Communication, Political Sociology and Computational Methods in Political Science.

UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA

Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa

Associated Professor, Dr. Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa from the University of Latvia works in the field of management, organizational theory, social capital, social network analysis, entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. She is a scientific chair of International Society for Study of Work and Organizational Values and board member of Riga High Tech Educational Foundation. Currently she is doing her post-doc research on effective innovation ecosystem development possibilities in the Baltic States. Besides academic career she also is a practitioner in the field of HR – since 2008 working as an external consultant in Amrop, international chief executive search company.

Giulio Lo Bello

Giulio Lo Bello is completing his Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Latvia, his research focuses mainly on the relationship between philosophy, anthropology, and mental health care. He has recently participated as a researcher in a project on Eco-phenomenology sponsored by the Latvian Council of Science and the Institute of philosophy and sociology of the University of Latvia. Giulio is also an external expert for the COST organization (European cooperation in Science and Technology), responsible for the evaluation of new projects applying for EU funding.

Krists Ansons

Krists Ansons is a PhD student at the University of Latvia. Krists specialized in international tax law, transfer pricing analyses. Krists focuses on international cooperation instruments: mutual agreement procedures and advance transfer pricing agreement procedures. During 2021, Krists were guest researcher on the use of mediation/arbitration to resolve cross border VAT issues with Prof. Dr. Jeffrey Owens as the project leader in the Global Tax Policy Center at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law of Vienna University of Economics and business (WU GTPC). 

RIGA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF LAW

Justīne Elferte

Justīne Elferte is the Head of the International Department at Riga Graduate School of Law where she and her team manage multiple capacity building projects. Her research focuses on parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms as a democracy building tool within the European Union as well as EU external relations, the concept of sovereignty and security aspects of the EU.

ISTANBUL MEDIPOL UNIVERSITY

Deniz GENÇ

Dr. H. Deniz GENC is associate professor of International Relations at İstanbul Medipol University. She earned her PhD degree from Marmara University, İstanbul in November 2013, with a comparative thesis on bordering processes of Spain and Turkey. She holds two masters degrees on EU Politics and International Relations from the University of Lund and Marmara University. She conducted post doctorate research in the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), at the University of Oxford in 2015. Her research focuses on different aspects of international migration. She published on irregular migration, forced migration, migrant integration, and borders in Europe and Turkey in various journals including International Migration, Turkish Studies, Migration Letters, and IZA Journal of Development and Migration.Her recent research focused on migrants’ access to healthcare services in Turkey. The research project – A Comprehensive Study on Non-nationals’ Access to Health Services in Turkey: Research of Limitations and Opportunities was funded by Turkey’s Scientific and Research Council (TUBITAK) under Grant no. 118K345. In this exploratory research, a team of researchers collected data through 1,5 hour face-to-face in-depth interviews from 149 participants during the course of 2018 and 2019.

Ayşe Nazlı Söylet 

Ayşe Nazlı Söylet is a research asisstant at Istanbul Medipol University. She is a graduate of Sabanci University, Social and Political Science depatment and holds an M.A. degree at Sabanci University, European Studies and also another  M.A. degree in Leiden University, Middle Eastern Studies. She worked with disadvantaged groups in her past projects; she is experineced in working with Roma community and Syrian migrants. She is currently working on her P.h.D. thesis on intersectionality in public policy in relation with female migrants and her other interest areas are international migration, relationship of gender and migration and vulnerable social groups.

Dr. Halil Kürşad ASLAN

Halil Kürşad Aslan graduated from the METU (Middle East Technical University) in Ankara, Turkey Department of Political Science and Public Administration in 1994. He completed his master’s program with a thesis titled “The Azerbaijan’s Oil and Its Role on Regional and World Politics (in Turkish)” at Marmara University in 1999; and he received his master’s degree in Political History and International Relations. After working as a bank auditor for a few years Kürşad Aslan started doctoral studies, and he received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at Kent State University in Ohio, USA in 2011. His PhD thesis titled as “International Labor Migration from Rural Central Asia: the Potential for Development in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan,” and Dr. Aslan, had conducted field research in Osh, Bishkek, Jalalabad villages along with Namangan and Andijan in Uzbekistan. Dr.  Aslan was an assistant professor at Eskişehir Osmangazi University between 2011-2015, and he has been giving lectures in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Istanbul Medipol University since 2015. Dr. Aslan’s main research areas are international political economy, knowledge economies, humanitarian diplomacy, migration, foreign policy and global politics. 

CHARLES UNIVERSITY, CZECH REPUBLIC

Slavomir Horak

Slavomír Horák is an Associate Professor at the Department of Russian and East European Studies of the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. He received his Associate Professorship in Politicial and Cultural Geography (2019) and PhD in Area Studies (2007). He lectures on political and social issues in Central Asia as well as the modern history of Central Asia. His main research focus includes a complex survey of contemporary Turkmenistan, particularly state- and nation-building, ideology, internal politics with special attention to informal structures as well as the foreign policy of Turkmenistan. The author of numerous scholarly journal articles and several books on state- and nation-building in Central Asia, Russian policy in Central Asia and conflict in Afghanistan. His most recent project includes also the research of de facto states border cases in Northern Eurasia.

THE ACADEMY OF THE GENERAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE, UZBEKISTAN

Tolibjon Mustafoev

“Tolibjon Mustafoev is a visiting research fellow at the Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University within the research project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia”. Tolibjon is also affiliated with the “Anti-Corruption” research center at the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He conducts interdisciplinary research on law, corruption, business, society and international indices. Currently, he is  developing a new research project, preliminarily titled “The impact of anti-corruption legal framework on business and investment climate in Uzbekistan: plural legalities and moralities”, in collaboration with Rustamjon Urinboyev, Associate Professor of Sociology of Law Department in Lund University.”

Muzaffar Dostqoriev

Muzaffar Dostqoriev is head of Department of the Academy of the General Prosecutor`s Office of Uzbekistan. His current responsibilities are organization and administration of the Department`s daily work and education process according to the Academy`s Annual Plan. Last 5 years Muzaffar Dostqoriev has been an employee of the Academy  and The High Training Courses of the General Prosecutor`s Office of Uzbekistan in the fields of Organization and Management of the Prosecutor`s activity, Working with Complaints, Case Management, Code of Ethics of the Employees, Organization of participation of Prosecutors in Civil Cases. Currently, he is conducting scientific research for gaining a PhD candidate degree on theme: “Procedural Features of the Participation of the Persons, assisting the Administration of Justice in Civil Cases”. Prior to academic experience, Muzaffar Dostqoriev worked at the different positions in main areas of the prosecutor’s activity (assistant prosecutor, senior investigator, prosecutor of department, deputy prosecutor and acting district prosecutor). He has an LLM and Bachelor`s degree of the Tashkent State law University (TSUL) in the field of Civil Procedure Law and International Law. Research interests are Prosecution Activity, Civil Procedure, International Law, Combatting Corruption, Crime Prevention and Project Management.

SIAR Research and Consulting

Ainoura Sagynbaeva

After gaining 10 years’ academic experience at the leading universities of the Kyrgyz Republic,  Ainoura Sagynbaeva PhD founded SIAR – a research and consulting company which covers 5 Central Asian countries, and Mongolia, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The company has been awarded certificates of gratitude and state awards from the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic for its high quality of service and for promoting women’s entrepreneurship. Besides business enterprises and international organizations, leading American and European universities are aslo clients of SIAR. In addition, a number of UN projects on different topics have been implemented by the company: these topics encompass many subject areas, including entrepreneurship and economics; education and youth issues; migration; tourism; assessment and projects monitoring; development programs, etc. For many years, SIAR has been taking on an interns; not only students from Central Asia, but also from leading European universities.

Elnura Ibraeva

Elnura Ibraeva is part of the Central Asian Law team and the theme of her research project is the factors that shape the business environment of entrepreneurs from Kyrgyzstan in Turkey. Currently, Elnura is Head of the Fieldwork Department and a project manager at SIAR research and consulting in Bishkek. She is a graduate of Bishkek State Institute of Economics and Commerce, Accounting and Audit department. Elnura coordinated the implementation of numerous research projects in the fields of entrepreneurship and economics; education and youth issues; migration; tourism; assessment and projects monitoring; development programs, etc. The company covers 5 Central Asian countries, and Mongolia, employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

WESTMINSTER INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN

Alisher Pulatov

“Alisher Pulatov is Senior Law lecturer in Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). His current administrative responsibilities are Dean of SOLTE (School of Law, Technology and Education) and Director of Centre for Professional and Lifelong Learning in WIUT. Last 10 year, Alisher Pulatov has been an employee of WIUT and taught in the fields like Contract Law, Public Law, International Trade Law, Law of International Organizations. Currently, he is PhD candidate in the University of Law, has LLB and European Relation degree from Surrey University,  did postgraduate studies in Groningen University and LLM in International Commercial Law degree from Westminster University. Research interest areas are Multinational Corporations, International Trade, Digital Economy and Taxation. Prior to the academic experience, Alisher Pulatov worked in different law firms, international and local private companies as an in-house lawyer.” 

Dildora Karimova

Dildora Karimova has been working as a Lecturer in Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT) for 7 years. Prior joining the WIUT she was lecturer in the University of World Economy and Diplomacy.  She obtained her  Master’s degree after graduating a Programme in Law and Economics from Bilkent University in Turkey. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Public International Law graduating from University of World Economy and Diplomacy in 2010 (Tashkent/Uzbekistan). For the last 7 years she has taught various modules like International Banking and Finance Law, Law of International Organizations, Dissertation in Law and currently she is teaching two modules, Public International Law and Corporate Crime. Her Research Interests include Public International Law, Human Rights, Women Empowerment, Corporate Criminal Liability. She has also been coaching WIUT’s Jessup team for 6 years and her team won the National Rounds in Uzbekistan and got into top 100 ranking in the International Rounds.?

Nilyufar Abdulatova

Nilyufar Abdulatova (LL.M), Lecturer in Law, Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). Nilyufar Abdulatova received the LLM from the Riga Graduate School of Law and the LLM from the Europa Institut of Saarland University respectively. Her research is situated in the field of International Energy Law and EU Law. Nilyufar teaches several courses concentrated around her research interests at the Westminster International University in Tashkent. She taught EU law within the framework of Jean Monnet Chair at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent. Moreover, Nilyufar has received several significant grants to conduct research in leading research institutions, including DAAD (Europa Kolleg Hamburg) and Bourse du Gouvernement Francais (École Nationale d’Administration). She speaks Russian, English and German.

Khasan Sayfutdinov

Khasan Sayfutdinov is Senior Law lecturer Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT).  He is also Course Leader for LLM in International Commercial Law program in WIUT. As a course leader, he is responsible within the Faculty to ensure the quality of the design and delivery of the LLM program of study at the postgraduate level. He had earned his PhD and LLM from School of Law, Xiamen University, China. Dr. Sayfutdinov has been teaching International Economic Law for undergraduate and graduate students since 2017. He has supervised students who wrote the dissertations on international investment and trade law. His latest research works are focused on the areas like Law of World Trade Organization and bilateral investment treaties.  The topic of his doctoral dissertation was “Study on the Role of Bilateral Investment Treaties in the attraction of the  Foreign Direct Investment to China”. ?

ZHETYSU UNIVERSITY NAMED AFTER I.ZHANSUGUROV, KAZAKHSTAN 

Dinara Abildenova

Dinara Abildenova is a research director at the Center for Policy Solutions, based in Almaty, a research fellow at scientific and educational center “Rukhani Zhanguru” at Zhetysu Unviersity named after I. Zhansugurov. She is a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at University of Zurich. For her PhD project “Celebrations in Kazakhstan: the role of social norms in economic relations”, she conducted a field study in South-Eastern part of Kazakhstan traditionally known as Zhetisu. This research considers wedding ceremonies at rural places to study larger processes of social change and stratification. The aim of the study is to examine the mechanism of establishing new norms and determine the factors which affect this process.  

Indira Alibayeva

Indira Alibayeva is a social anthropologist and research fellow at the scientific and educational center “Rukhani Zhangiru” at Zhetysu University named after I. Zhansugurov. Indira has extensive experience in anthropological research in Central Asia on topics of local social relations, ethnic identification, and nation-building processes from below.  Indira holds a MA in Cultural Studies from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. She is currently a PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich. She has been a PhD researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany.  In her doctoral project, Indira studied ethnic identification in the south of Kazakhstan, and the ethnicity concepts of the local population. Indira’s research interests include ethnic identification and nation building processes, ethnic minorities and integration processes. Besides academia, Indira does research consultancy in the non-profit NGO sector. 

Nazgul Baigabatova

Nazgul Baigabatova is an Associate Professor in Historical science at Zhetysu University named after I. Zhansugurov. She is the head of the scientific and educational center “Rukhani Zhanguru” where she manages projects on challenges in society and culture. Her research interests are studying everyday practices, diaspora, ethnic identity, problems of adaptation and integration of repatriates. She has conducted field research in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China.

Daniya Nurmukhankyzy

Daniya Nurmukhankyzy is the head of educational programs in the direction of training “law” of Zhetysu University named after Ilyas Zhansugurov. PhD in Jurisprudence, Associate Professor of Law. Engaged in the development of new and innovative educational programs for the preparation of competitive legal personnel. Research interests: investment law, environmental law, agricultural law, digital and information law. She is also an Expert in the scientific anti-corruption expertise of legal acts.

KHUJAND POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE OF THE TAJIK TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, TAJIKISTAN

Dalerjon Sharipov

Dalerjon Sharipov is a visiting researcher at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of Marmara University. He has obtained his degree in Jurisprudence (Civil Law) from Moscow Financial and Law University and Information Systems in Economics from Khujand Polytechnic Institute of Tajik Technical University. Beside his main work, he has experience in legal consulting in private companies in Tajikistan and abroad, particularly for Tajik migrants in Russian Federation. Also, he has coordinated several international IT projects. His research direction is related to digital transformation, digital law, legal acts and information technologies.

Shuhrat Maqsudov

Shuhrat Maqsudov is co-founder of startup IT company UNIWORK UG in Bonn, Germany and Head of the International Relations and Project Management Office of Khujand Polytechnic Institute of Tajik Technical University. His education background is Information Systems in Economics and Master of Science in Computer Science from Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France. He has developed and successfully trialled an E-governance System of Higher Education Institution that helps prevent corruption in the education system, which received a nomination for World Summit Award 2013 in Sri Lanka. He is currently working on how developing Tajikistan’s digital economy reduces corruption, simplifies bureaucratic procedures and thereby contributes to the business environment and brings more foreign investment to Tajikistan.

TEBIGY KUWWAT PUBLIC ASSOCIATION, TURKMENISTAN

Yolbars Kepbanov

Yolbars Kepbanov, Ph.D. in Law, is a Researcher in the Tebigy Kuwwat NGO (Turkmenistan). He is a Research Fellow of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia” at Lund University.  His area of expertise is legal issues of ecology and agriculture in Turkmenistan, education, and migration in the countries of Central Asia. He is the author of over 50 scientific papers in this area. Recent publications by Yolbars include The Organization of Environmental Activities in Turkmenistan (2018) and Return Migration in Central Asia (2020), the book published by IOM in 2020 where Yolbars contributed as a co-author. Yolbars has long experience of participating in environmental and development projects implemented by UN, USAID, OSCE, GIZ, and other organizations at the local and international levels. He authored the legislation texts in the capacity of a local independent expert under a number of official programs in Turkmenistan.

Berdymyrat Ovezmyradov

Berdymyrat Ovezmyradov, Ph.D. in Policy and Planning Science, is a Research Fellow of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia” at Lund University. His interdisciplinary area of research includes sustainable value chains and business analytics. Berdymyrat currently focuses on comparative studies of technological development in Central Asia. He previously published papers in the field of business, technology, and education. Berdymyrat has academic experience as a lecturer in engineering and management sciences. He also has industrial experience working in the manufacturing and logistics sectors.

INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS

Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov

Ulugbek Abdurakhmanov is a head of the LL.M. program and a researcher at the Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He conducts research on law, labour market and the impact of a business environment on employment issues. Currently, he is working on a new research project titled “Introducing teleworking to the legal system of Uzbekistan as an effective tool to boost the economic activity of business actors”. The purpose of this study is to support the economies of countries by creating favorable conditions for business actors and ensuring the employment of the people.

Ruzikulova Lola

Lola Ruzikulova, project team’s newest member, is a Migration and Ethnic Studies student at Malmö University. She comes with a rich experience working for both privately-owned international businesses and organizations, including UNICEF Country Mission in Uzbekistan, and Telia Telecommunications Company most recently. She speaks Russian, English, Italian and basic German.