Kazakhstani lawyer Murat Adam has been disbarred following a complaint by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which accused him of discrediting law enforcement through social media posts. Adam, who previously defended Chechen refugee Mansur Movlaev, denies the allegations, calls the decision politically motivated, and plans to appeal. The case is linked to Kazakhstan’s recent refusal …
Trochev, Alexei, ‘Pliant Courts, Recalcitrant Chiefs and Judicial Clientelism in Authoritarian Regimes’, in Björn Dressel, Raul Sanchez-Urribarri, and Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg (eds), Informality and Courts: Comparative Perspectives (Edinburgh, 2024; online edn, Edinburgh Scholarship Online, 18 Sept. 2025), https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781399535250.003.0005, accessed 6 Oct. 2025. How and why do some autocracies have pliant courts yet recalcitrant judicial chiefs? Trochev argue that is an unexpected consequence of empowering the …
Nora Webb Williams, Margaret Hanson, “Captured Courts and Legitimized Autocrats: Transforming Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court.” Law & Social Inquiry vol. 47, no. 4 (2022): 1201–33. Summary: Contemporary dictators routinely co-opt institutions crucial for democratic governance. Although an extensive literature examines why and how aspiring autocrats bring elections and parties under their control, constitutions—and the judicial or quasi-judicial …