Rustamjon Urinboyev

Public Law in a Hybrid State presents a broad sociological analysis of legal developments in contemporary Uzbekistan, using this example to assess why states with some authoritarian features may promote legal reforms and why the modernization of legal institutions may generate benefits for governments. It examines how, alongside constitutional changes, reforms in administrative law play an important role in polities with hybrid constitutions, shaping the architecture of government and constructing procedures to manage exchanges between government and citizens. Placing these reform processes in the longer-term context of postimperial history, it also shows how changes to legal systems acquire distinctive importance in societies with recent experiences of decolonization, uncertain sovereignty, and unstable patterns of citizenship.

Public Law in a Hybrid State presents a broad sociological analysis of legal developments in contemporary Uzbekistan, using this example to assess why states with some authoritarian features may promote legal reforms and why the modernization of legal institutions may generate benefits for governments. It examines how, alongside constitutional changes, reforms in administrative law play an important role in polities with hybrid constitutions, shaping the architecture of government and constructing procedures to manage exchanges between government and citizens. Placing these reform processes in the longer-term context of postimperial history, it also shows how changes to legal systems acquire distinctive importance in societies with recent experiences of decolonization, uncertain sovereignty, and unstable patterns of citizenship.

This book presents new socio-legal perspectives and insights on the social life of corruption and anticorruption in authoritarian regimes. This book takes up the case of Uzbekistan—an authoritarian regime in Central Asia and one of the most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index—and examines the corruption that developed in a tightly closed authoritarian regime permeated by a large-scale shadow economy, a weak rule of law, and a collectivist legal culture. Building on socio-legal frameworks of legal compliance, living law and legal pluralism, the central argument of the book is that the roles, meanings, and logics of corruption are fluid, and depend on a myriad of structural variables, and contextual and situational factors. This book will be of value to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of sociology of law, legal anthropology, and Central Asian studies, especially those with an interest in the intersection of law, society, and corruption in authoritarian regime contexts. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

This book presents new socio-legal perspectives and insights on the social life of corruption and anticorruption in authoritarian regimes. This book takes up the case of Uzbekistan—an authoritarian regime in Central Asia and one of the most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index—and examines the corruption that developed in a tightly closed authoritarian regime permeated by a large-scale shadow economy, a weak rule of law, and a collectivist legal culture. Building on socio-legal frameworks of legal compliance, living law and legal pluralism, the central argument of the book is that the roles, meanings, and logics of corruption are fluid, and depend on a myriad of structural variables, and contextual and situational factors. This book will be of value to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of sociology of law, legal anthropology, and Central Asian studies, especially those with an interest in the intersection of law, society, and corruption in authoritarian regime contexts. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 International license.

This open access book contributes new theoretical and comparative insights on migrant agency, undocumentedness and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes. The book is conceived as a critical reflection on the contemporary migration regime scholarship, and, more generally, on comparative migration studies, which primarily focus on migrants’ experiences and immigration policies in the context of liberal democracies in North America and Western Europe. Addressing this gap is particularly important when considering the fact that many new migration hubs are nondemocratic, which in turn requires us to revise or produce new frameworks of analysis beyond existing and dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies. This book takes up the case study of Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey—two archetypal non-Western, nondemocratic regimes and key migration hotspots worldwide—and investigates how migration governance outcomes are shaped by the informal power geometries and extralegal processes in physical and digital landscapes in which migrant workers, employers, middlemen, landlords, street world actors and street-level bureaucrats negotiate the contemporary migration system. This lively ethnography presents new empirical material, a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying migrants’ experiences and migration governance processes in non-Western migration regimes.

This open access book contributes new theoretical and comparative insights on migrant agency, undocumentedness and informality in non-Western, non-democratic migration regimes. The book is conceived as a critical reflection on the contemporary migration regime scholarship, and, more generally, on comparative migration studies, which primarily focus on migrants’ experiences and immigration policies in the context of liberal democracies in North America and Western Europe. Addressing this gap is particularly important when considering the fact that many new migration hubs are nondemocratic, which in turn requires us to revise or produce new frameworks of analysis beyond existing and dominant Western-centric migration regime typologies. This book takes up the case study of Central Asian migrants in Russia and Turkey—two archetypal non-Western, nondemocratic regimes and key migration hotspots worldwide—and investigates how migration governance outcomes are shaped by the informal power geometries and extralegal processes in physical and digital landscapes in which migrant workers, employers, middlemen, landlords, street world actors and street-level bureaucrats negotiate the contemporary migration system. This lively ethnography presents new empirical material, a comparative perspective and methodological tools for studying migrants’ experiences and migration governance processes in non-Western migration regimes.

This research report is a compilation of essays written by guest researchers from Central Asia who spent four to twelve months at the Department of Sociology of Law, Lund University, and conducted research on various topics pertaining to legal cultures, governance and business environments in Central Asia. These guest research stays (secondments) took place in the framework of the EU-funded project “Central Asian Law: Legal Cultures and Business Environments in Central Asia” (project number 870647 H2020 MSCA-RISE 2019-2023), which runs from 01/03/2020 through 28/02/2024. The project is coordinated by Lund University and the project consortium includes European universities (University of Zurich, Charles University Prague, Riga Graduate School of Law, Marmara University, University of Latvia) as well as Central Asian partner institutions (L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Khujand Polytechnic Institute of the Tajik Technical University, SIAR Research and Consulting, Tebigy Kuwwat Public Association, Academy of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan, Westminster International University in Tashkent). This research report consists of introduction and five papers that explore contemporary issues and challenges in Central Asia, such as the problems accompanying the internationalization of higher education and research, anticorruption legal frameworks and the business climate, cultural branding, legal culture education, and the digital economy. The main idea behind publishing this preliminary research report is to provide a platform for Central Asian guest researchers to present the research projects they developed during their research stay in Lund and share their initial research findings with the Central Asian Law project team and the wider academic and policy audiences. Another equally important aim was to empower our guest researchers, given the fact that many Central Asia-based researchers find it difficult to publish their academic work in Western academic venues due to different academic, economic, and ideological factors.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. While migration has become an all-important topic of discussion around the globe, mainstream literature on migrants' legal adaptation and integration has focused on case studies of immigrant communities in Western-style democracies. We know relatively little about how migrants adapt to a new legal environment in the ever-growing hybrid political regimes that are neither clearly democratic nor conventionally authoritarian. This book takes up the case of Russia—an archetypal hybrid political regime and the third largest recipients of migrants worldwide—and investigates how Central Asian migrant workers produce new forms of informal governance and legal order. Migrants use the opportunities provided by a weak rule-of-law and a corrupt political system to navigate the repressive legal landscape and to negotiate—using informal channels—access to employment and other opportunities that are hard to obtain through the official legal framework of their host country. This lively ethnography presents new theoretical perspectives for studying immigrant legal incorporation in similar political contexts.

Law is everywhere - Rätten finns överallt. Det uttrycket kan beskriva rättens roll i våra liv. Utöver formella lagar, regleringar och avtal möter vi i vår vardag även informella lagar och sociala normer: i familjen, i skolan, på arbetsplatsen och i samhället i stort. De styr både hur vi tänker och agerar och vad vi förväntar oss av andra. Rättssociologi handlar om att analysera relationen mellan rätten och samhället. I den här boken beskrivs hur rättssociologiska begrepp kan tillämpas på en praktisk nivå, i forskning om och studier av samhället. Konkreta exempel visar hur teoretiska och metodologiska begrepp har tillämpats i olika rättssociologiska studier. Begreppen blir därmed nyttiga verktyg för en ökad förståelse av samhället från ett rättssociologiskt perspektiv. Om rättssociologisk tillämpning är en fortsättning på Baier, Svensson & Nafstads Om rättssociologi (2018). Böckerna är tänkta för studenter på grundnivå i rättssociologi, men kan vara intressanta även för studerande i andra discipliner, som kriminologi, sociologi och juridik. Även forskare, lärare och praktiker kan ha glädje och nytta av böckerna.

I såväl media som inom myndigheter och organisationer har det under de senaste åren i allt högre grad uppmärksammats att migrerande arbetskraft inom jordbruket/den gröna näringen eventuellt används på ett sätt som kan strida mot arbetsrättsliga och sociala regleringar. Avsikten med föreliggande studie är framförallt att sammanställa den forskning som finns avseende olika arbetslivs- och arbetsmiljöaspekter på migrantarbete inom den gröna näringen med fokus på säsongsarbete. Relevant forskning på området har sökts i olika databaser; och av en uppföljning av referenslistor i artiklar och böcker. På grund av den flerdimensionella problematiken kring migrantarbetet inom den gröna sektorn har en mångdisciplinär forskargrupp satts samman för studien. Redan på ett tidigt stadium stod det emellertid klart att det inte existerar någon mer omfattande svensk forskning på området vilket innebär att mycket av de resonemang som förs i den här skriften vilar på internationella erfarenheter. Det finns god grund i den internationella forskningen och genom intervjuer med representanter för svenska organisationer och myndigheter att anta att många migrantarbetare inom den gröna näringen i Sverige lever och arbetar under oacceptabla förhållanden - bortom rättslig kontroll och insyn. Det handlar bland annat om undermåliga bostäder och bristande hygien, ökad olycksrisk, exponering för hälsovådliga kemikalier, ergonomiska problem, risk för hot och våld, diskriminering, trakasserier, brist på stöd från samhället såsom sjukvård och rättshjälp, långa arbetstider och låg lön. Det faktum att problematiken potentiellt är svårartad gör att kunskapsbristen i Sverige blir särskilt allvarlig – ny och fördjupad forskning behövs. Dessutom torde behovet av insatser från myndigheter och organisationer vara stort.