The System of the Sources of Law in the Kyrgyz Republic during the Transitional Period

Abstract

Chikeeva Zura - Assiociate Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, Candidate of Juridical Sciences. Address: 44 Kievskaya Str., Bishkek, 720000, Kyrgyz Republic. E-mail: aliya.m@inbox.ru.

AbstractThe article deals with specific features of the system of the sources of law in the Kyrgyz Republic intransitional period. The works of legal scholars as to the concept of source of law have been analyzed.Practical significance of the problem of the sources of law in transitional periods has been researched.The analysis of pluralism of legal theories allows selecting three major approaches to the problem of thesources of law: normative, of natural law and integrative. The modern legal studies tend to identify thesource of law with the form of law. Source of law is understood in material and philosophical meanings.The term source of law symbolizes the force generating law. The transitional period in the developmentof the Kyrgyz Republic may be recognized as a major factor determining the nature and character of thecountry’s system of sources of law. Due to this, at the period of the development of the legal system inthe Kyrgyz Republic, the necessity to study the source of law is evident. The system of the sources ofsocial law began in the Soviet period. After the collapse of the USSR, the system of sources changedand got a new content having fixed the democratic component as a guideline in the development of thestate. The source of law started developing after the first Kyrgyz Constitution was adopted in 1993. Themajor source of law in Kyrgyzstan is a regulatory act. The constitution dominates in the source of lawsystem. However, in the context of globalization international treaties and legal custom are consideredas sources of law either. The interaction of the sources of law occurs within a single system. During thetransitional period, the legislation has exposed the drawbacks compensated by by-laws and legal institutionsof legal analogy. In the period of globalization and integration, the norms of international law andinternational treaties are becoming one of the major sources. However, the Kyrgyz Constitution of 2010does not codify the priority of international law norms over the domestic law of Kyrgyzstan. Besideslegal tradition, legal norms typical of Kyrgyz common law (adatu) such as aqsaqal tribunal and tripleaiyp are of special importance. Thus, the historical development of the Kyrgyz Republic is reflected inthe system of the sources of law.