Kazakstan

Kazakhstan was formerly a part of the USSR and the Kazakh legal system has been heavily shaped by the Soviet legal tradition.  The sources of law are the Constitution, international treaties, normative legal acts and normative decrees of the Constitutional Council and Supreme Court.

Kazakhstan does not have a State religion and Article 1 of the Constitution of 1995 establishes Kazakhstan as a secular republic.  Kazakh family law is not based on the Sharia.  The main legislation in the area of child custody is the Law on Marriage and Family, which was promulgated in 1998.  

Available Information

Legal Texts

•    Constitution 1995

•    Citizenship Law 1991

•    Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities

•    Civil Code (Extract)

Reports

•    Convention on the Rights of the Child Report 2002

Articles

•    Legal System Information, Marvin E. Nowicki

•    Guide to Legal Research, Victor Malinovskiy and Karim Shakirov, 2002