Anis H. Bajrektarevic is a Professor and a Chairperson for International Law and Global

LEgAL ENvIRONMENT
Turkmenistan’s legal environment is constitu-
tionally well regulated with an independent ju-
diciary (but judges are hired and fired by the
president). Like its neighbor and transitioning
countries and economies, Turkmenistan needs
to strengthen rule of law and access to justice
for its entire population, as well as to promote
civil society activity by promoting freedom of
speech, access to information and to promote
religious freedom. Under the current President
Berdymuhkammedov, these reforms will be
hard to achieve as he is engulfed in his own cult
of personality. Reforms in Turkmenistan have
been focused on political and economic re-
forms. Turkmenistan is a unitary state led by a
totalitarian President. In 2006, it was stated that
the Turkmen law was transitioning from Soviet
law, but will include elements of Islamic law (be-
cause of the history of Turkmenistan). 
MODERNDIPLOMACY.EU

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Turkmenistan is a civil law country with its laws
hierarchically organized. The Constitution of
Turkmenistan establishes permanent neutrality
and the Turkmen Constitution promotes
human rights according to Article 3: “to ensure
conditions for the free development of individ-
ual personality, and also commits to protect the
life, honor, dignity, freedom, individual inviola-
bility, and natural and inalienable rights of the
citizen.”[93]
The Constitution also calls for a separation of
powers as codified by Article 4 as it is divided
among three branches: Legislative, Executive,
and Judicial. The Majlis is the highest represen-
tative body (which is similar to Uzbekistan's rep-
resentative body) and is the equivalent to a
Parliamentary body.
While the Constitution of Turkmenistan is all en-
compassing and reflects the legal system of
many democratic countries such as the United
States and Western European Parliamentary
Systems, the Constitution is obviously not held
and its’ legally structured inherently flawed due
to the nature of its leadership structure. 
Holding to the idea that democratic reform
should follow economic progress or develop si-
multaneously, “Turkmenistan’s post-indepen-
dence transition towards a market-oriented
economy supported by democratic and plural-
istic institutions can be viewed as slow.”[94] Like
any developing nation and like many of the For-
mer Soviet Republics, the country faces corrup-
tion in the form of bribery. The regulatory
framework and the legal system of Turk-
menistan have harmed its commercial develop-
ment as they fall short of international
standards and, “they do not seem to be applied
in practice, since there is no functioning stock
exchange and there appears to be no public is-
suance of shares.”[95]
In Turkmenistan, you have to pay to be “intro-
duced” to the Government of Turkmenistan in
other words receiving a letter of invitation to
visit the country. Turkmenistan has repeatedly
ranked high (numerically low on a wide scale)
on the corruption index indicating a high level
of corruption. Transparency International in
2013, ranked Turkmenistan 170 out of 174. Po-
litical corruption and corruption in the public
service sector also exists.
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