On December 9, at the Law Faculty of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University was hosted a guest lecture of the Head of the division of the Department of Legislation of the Ministry of Justice – Jangarashev Rolan Maratovich on the topic: "Reforming the Advocacy System in the Republic of Kazakhstan" for third and fourth year students.
The main goal of the lecture was to discuss pertinent issues and problems of the current advocacy system in Kazakhstan and the absence of comprehensive legal regulation in the legal aidfield over the years.
In addition, Mr. Jangarashev covered the draft Law "On Advocacy and Legal Aid" developed by the Ministry of Justice, the provisions of which are aimed at improving the current legal aid system,.
Here, a number of problems in relation to the current Law "On Advocacy" were highlighted. Specifically, it was noted that there was a lack of international practice in the activities of practicing lawyers; the lack of effective mechanisms to protect citizens from low-quality services; the existence of certain provisions of the current Law, which seriously hinder the influx of new personnel into the system of advocacy; and lastly lack of transparency in the activities of practicing lawyers.
The Speaker highlighted that the Draft Law includes the best world practice and contains mechanisms aimed at qualitative changes of the current system of advocacy. Examples of such qualitative changes noted by the Lecturer include:
the availability to elaborate mechanisms which will improve the quality of the services provided by lawyers, through transparency and competitiveness;
abolition of admission fees and simplification of internship rules aimed at addressing the problems of deficit of personnel and the influx of new personnel into the profession of advocate.
Overall, the peculiarities of the reform carried out by the Ministry of Justice to improve the functioning of the system of advocacy were noted. Those peculiaritiesare mainly aimed at ensuring that provisions of the Draft Law will provide high-quality services to the public.
The students of the Law Faculty showed special interest in relation to the proposed reforms and activities conducted by the Ministry of Justice. The lecture was held in English and in form of open discussion, where students asked about matters of interest to them and expressed their civil position.
The outputs of the meeting – students expressed their support for the reforms carried out by the Ministry of Justice and expressed their desire to work in a new, more advanced, open and high-quality legal aid system.
