Constitutional Reform and Kazakhstan,s International Obligations: a Step Back?

Abstract

The paper analyses the amendments proposed in the draft Article 5 of the new Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan concerning the regulation of the place and role of international law within the domestic legal order. Particular attention is paid to the exclusion of the category of “other international obligations”, the absence of constitutional entrenchment of the priority of ratified treaties, the narrowing of the normative framework governing their operation from "legislation” to “laws”, as well as the limitation of the requirement of official publication solely to ratified treaties. The purpose of the paper is to assess whether the proposed constitutional amendments constitute a regression in the existing model of interaction between international and national law and to determine their potential legal and reputational consequences for the Republic of Kazakhstan. On the basis of international legal norms the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the jurisprudence of international bodies, it is argued that these changes may result in legal uncertainty, a weakening of the existing model governing the relationship between international and domestic law, difficulties in the implementation of international obligations, and adverse reputational consequences for the State. The novelty of the paper lies in providing one of the first comprehensive doctrinal assessments of the 2026 draft constitutional reform from the perspective of international law and constitutional theory. The paper demonstrates that the proposed amendments may generate constitutional uncertainty regarding customary international law and binding decisions of international organizations, weaken the monist orientation of Kazakhstan’s legal system, create risks of legislative rollback of treaty priority, and negatively affect legal predictability and the international reputation of the State. The paper concludes that there is a need to preserve or clarify constitutional guarantees ensuring the good-faith performance of the international obligations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the legal predictability of its national legal system.