The project delivered on the expected milestones and tasks, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, management, and other challenges, that have arisen since its inception. At the outset of the Central Asian Law project, the following objectives were identified and the corresponding results below were achieved:
1) produce new empirical knowledge on legal cultures and business ethics in the region;
Through regular workshops, secondments and conferences, the project researchers were consistently reminded of the project objectives, including the aim to produce new empirical knowledge on the interconnections between legal cultures, governance and business environments in the Central Asian region. This is reflected in the number of publications by the researchers of the project, which totals around 64 (of which 8 are books/monographs, 11 articles 3 other types of publications and 42 blog posts). 2 edited volumes with Palgrave and Routledge are in progress to be published which contains at least 9 chapters in each, contributed by the researchers of the project. These publications and outputs resulted from the empirical data collected by the Central Asian Law project team.
2) engage with, and challenge, existing theoretical paradigms within socio-legal studies, law, economic and business sciences, Central Asian studies (post-Soviet studies, more generally) and governance scholarship;
The publications based on the new empirical evidence were presented at 7 international and region-focused conferences, leading to the discussion of the mainstream theories in Central Asian studies relating to the legal cultures, governance and the business environment and economy of the countries. The new conceptual and empirical insights produced by the researchers of the project are wide-ranging in topics and include, among others, the legal culture, social norms and society, regional and international trade, agriculture and economy, education, socio-legal norms and the rule of law in the region, as well as national and local level governance.
3) provide strategic intelligence for business actors interested or already operating in the region and inform international organisations and decision-makers in the EU and Central Asia on possible ways to improve the business and investment climate, the rule of law and governance in the region.
The project members were encouraged to participate in the conferences, forums and workshops. By participating in interdisciplinary and intersectoral gatherings, where representatives of academia and business and policy-makers are present, and by publishing in non-academic outlets, we disseminated our findings to a wide range of actors, including the business sector, both domestic and foreign. The project team shared the project results by targeting individual state organisations and decision makers through various ways – by sending the project publications by mail and digitally to those organisations who might benefit from the publication (e.g. the book “Compass for Investors”, described below in section 1.2.4) or by inviting the decision-makers in the EU and Central Asia to the project conferences and workshops (e.g. Embassies of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Stockholm and Berlin, General Prosecutor’s Office, etc). The project findings have been used to inform policy-makers and business actors in the EU, as well as international organisations, on how to access Central Asian markets and on possible ways to improve the rule of law, governance and business climate and ethics in Central Asia.
