Kazakhstan’s legal system is a civil law system similar to the systems in most other former Soviet jurisdictions. Its laws are contained in the Constitution,2  various codes, laws, edicts, decrees (having the force of law), regulations, instructions, orders and other normative acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 

The securities market is primarily regulated by the provisions of the Kazakh Civil Code,3  the Securities Law,4  regulations of the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NBK) and internal rules of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE).5  

Unlike the international capital market, the domestic capital market is heavily regulated by the laws of Kazakhstan. The local securities market, in particular, is divided into an organised market (transactions with securities are executed in accordance with the trade organiser’s (i.e., the KASE’s) internal documents) and an unorganised market (transactions with securities are executed without observing the requirements established by the trade organiser’s internal documents).  

а  first instance courts – district courts and courts deemed equivalent thereto;

b courts of appellate and cassation instances – oblast courts and courts deemed equivalent thereto; and 

c the highest judicial body performing the functions of supervisory instance – the Supreme Court. 

Kazakhstan has general and specialised courts, whose competence encompasses review of different categories of cases (economic, administrative, etc.). The review of property and non-property disputes between entrepreneurs and legal entities, as well as corporate disputes, is referred to the competence of specialised inter-district economic courts. 

Alternatively, the Law on Arbitration Tribunals of 28 December 2004 and the Law on International Arbitration of 28 December 2004 set out the key provisions relating to the proceedings in arbitration tribunals or courts of arbitration. For instance, certain6  disputes between residents of Kazakhstan can resolved by ‘arbitration tribunals’ in Kazakhstan. These arbitration tribunals are not state courts, but various private arbitration tribunals roughly analogous to private arbitration tribunals in Western countries. 

Kazakhstan is a party to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the Convention). Accordingly, a foreign arbitral award obtained in a state which is party to that Convention should be recognised and enforced by a state court of Kazakhstan, subject to the terms of the Convention and compliance with local procedural rules. 

Foreign court judgments may be recognised and enforced in Kazakhstan only if provided for by an international treaty for the mutual enforcement of court judgments (based on reciprocity). Kazakhstan is not a party to any such treaties with the most Western jurisdictions. Consequently, should a judgment be obtained from a court in such jurisdictions, it is unlikely to be enforceable in Kazakhstan courts.  

The following institutions are involved in regulating and monitoring capital markets activity in Kazakhstan:  

The NBK as a financial mega regulator (in 2011 Kazakhstan consolidated its financial and securities regulators under the auspices of the NBK) is the governmental authority that executes, inter alia, regulation, control and supervision over the financial market and financial and other organisations within its competence. The NBK issues licences for financial activities to market participants and adopts legal acts that regulate capital markets in Kazakhstan. The NBK is currently based in Almaty (the ‘financial centre’ of Kazakhstan). However, pursuant to a recent presidential decree, the NBK shall move to Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan) by 1 January 2017.