Author
Dr Rakhiya Toxanbayeva
Organisation/Institution
KIMEP University
Country
KAZAKHSTAN
Panel
Legal Education
Title
Reimagining Legal Education in Central Asia through Bilingual and Multilingual Pedagogy: The Case of Kazakhstan
Abstract
In Kazakhstan, legal education operates within a civil law tradition and a bilingual context, presenting distinctive challenges since most legal sources and academic materials are produced in Russian and Kazakh. At the same time, English, which reflects the common law tradition, has become the main language of international law and legal scholarship. This creates linguistic and conceptual barriers for students and legal professionals who must navigate between different legal cultures when engaging with regional and international frameworks. This paper explores how bilingual and multilingual pedagogy can equip future lawyers with the linguistic and analytical tools needed to interpret domestic law while effectively participating in transnational legal discourse. The study adopts an analytical and comparative approach, drawing on research in legal education, linguistic justice, and regional legal development. It examines how bilingual reasoning shapes students’ understanding of legal concepts, how English can serve as a bridge to comparative and international law, and how multilingual competence can promote cooperation with other parts of Asia beyond Central Asia. Findings show that the lack of Kazakh-language resources and inconsistencies in legal translation often limit legal literacy and equal access to justice. The paper suggests ways to improve curricula and develop multilingual legal training that would strengthen both national legal reasoning and international engagement. By foregrounding multilingual pedagogy, legal educators can prepare students to navigate a globalized legal environment
Biography
Dr. Rakhiya Toxanbayeva is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, KIMEP University. She holds an LLM from Cornell Law School and both an MSc and a PhD in Foreign Philology from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Her research focuses on legal language as a communicative and cognitive system, including legal discourse, terminology, and the translation of legal concepts. She is currently working on the TransLegal project, translating legal terms from English into Kazakh for the World Law Dictionary.
