Asia | Blind obedience

Uzbekistan is reforming its judicial system—up to a point

The courts are becoming fairer, except in a few prominent cases

The last anyone has seen of Ms Karimova
|TASHKENT

“IF JUSTICE PERISHES, human life on Earth has lost its meaning,” intoned Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan’s president, quoting Immanuel Kant, a philosopher. Mr Mirziyoyev was explaining to parliament his plans for reform of the justice system. Anyone entering an Uzbek courtroom, he said, should be “fully confident that the principles of legality and justice are unfailingly upheld”. That is a tall order in a country in which, until he came to power in 2016, the courts served a dictatorship. And although the courts are indeed being overhauled, there are limits.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Blind obedience”

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