Revision Complaint to the Economic Court in Uzbekistan

Publication date: 04.05.2026

The system of reviewing judicial acts in economic court proceedings serves as one of the key guarantees of legality, judicial protection, and uniform application of substantive and procedural law. The entry of a judicial act into legal force means that it acquires binding and enforceable effect; however, this does not exclude the possibility of subsequent control over its legality and validity in forms specifically provided by law. One such form in the economic procedure of the Republic of Uzbekistan is the review of judicial acts under the revision procedure.

The distinctive feature of revision proceedings is that they are aimed not at a full re-examination of the case on the merits, but at verifying the correctness of the application by lower courts of substantive law and compliance with procedural law requirements in respect of judicial acts that have already been issued and have entered into legal force. In this respect, revision proceedings are close to supervisory and extraordinary forms of judicial control, but at the same time they have their own regulatory model, established in Chapter 36 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The relevance of the topic is determined by the fact that it is precisely at the stage of revision review that the most significant violations, which were not corrected by the appellate and cassation instances, are eliminated. In addition, the revision procedure plays an important role in ensuring uniformity of judicial practice and procedural discipline of lower courts.

Concept and Legal Nature of Revision Proceedings

Proceedings for the review of judicial acts under the revision procedure constitute an independent stage of economic court proceedings, within which decisions, rulings, and resolutions that have entered into legal force and have already passed through the forms of instance-based review provided by law are examined. Based on the results of reviewing complaints and protests, the appellate, cassation, and revision courts issue resolutions, which emphasizes the independent status of the revision instance within the system of economic procedure.

The legal nature of revision proceedings is reflected in several characteristics.

First, they are review-oriented rather than original in nature. The subject of examination is not the dispute as such, but the judicial acts of lower courts and the correctness of their legal assessment.

Second, revision proceedings are extraordinary, since they apply after a judicial act has entered into legal force.

Third, this stage is primarily aimed at correcting significant errors in the application of law, rather than at a new examination of the factual side of the case.

Fourth, revision proceedings perform a public-law function, since they contribute to ensuring unity of practice, legality, and predictability of economic justice.

Therefore, the revision procedure cannot be reduced either to a “third appeal” or to a repeated cassation. It is a special procedural form of control over the legality of judicial acts that have entered into legal force.

Place of the Revision Procedure in the System of Instance-Based Review

The Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan establishes a multi-level system of control over judicial acts: first instance, appeal, cassation, and revision. At the same time, the revision procedure applies only after ordinary forms of instance-based appeal have been used.

The Code directly provides that decisions, rulings, and resolutions of inter-district, district, and city economic courts that have entered into legal force in cases considered under appellate or cassation procedure, as well as resolutions of appellate or cassation courts, may be appealed under the revision procedure. Similarly, judicial acts that have already been considered under the revision procedure by the courts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court, as well as certain acts of these courts and of the Supreme Court adopted as courts of first instance and considered under appellate or cassation procedure, may be appealed to the Judicial Panel for Economic Cases of the Supreme Court.

It follows that revision under the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan is structured as a two-level system:

revision review in the courts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court;
subsequent revision review in the Judicial Panel for Economic Cases of the Supreme Court;
in certain cases, consideration of a protest by the Presidium of the Supreme Court.

Such a structure demonstrates the legislator’s intention to combine accessibility of correcting judicial errors with concentration of the most significant cases at the level of the Supreme Court.

Persons Entitled to Apply to the Revision Instance

An essential element of revision proceedings is the circle of persons authorized to initiate review of a judicial act.

According to Article 307 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the right to file a revision appeal belongs to:

persons participating in the case;
persons who were not involved in the case, if the court adopted a decision affecting their rights and obligations;
the Commissioner under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the Protection of the Rights and Legitimate Interests of Business Entities, subject to exceptions established by law;
prosecutors, within the scope of their competence and subject to the conditions established by the Code.

This regulation shows that the institution of revision has not only a private-law but also a public-law orientation. Particularly illustrative is the inclusion among the authorized applicants of the business ombudsman and the prosecutor. This means that the legislator regards the revision procedure as a mechanism for protecting not only individual interests, but also the public interest in the sphere of economic justice.

Special attention should be paid to the right granted to persons who formally did not participate in the case, but whose rights and obligations were affected by the judicial act. This provision corresponds to the principle of access to justice and serves as a procedural guarantee against the issuance of judicial acts beyond the claims submitted.

Competence of Revision Courts

Article 308 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan determines the courts that consider complaints and protests under the revision procedure. These are:

the Judicial Panels for Economic Cases of the Court of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court;
the Judicial Panel for Economic Cases of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
in cases provided by law, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

At the same time, a case in appellate, cassation, and revision procedure is considered collegially by a panel of three judges, while in the Presidium of the Supreme Court it is considered with the participation of a majority of the members of the Presidium. The Code also prohibits the repeated participation of a judge who has already considered the same case in another instance, which is aimed at ensuring impartiality and institutional neutrality of review.

Accordingly, the revision model is based on the principles of:

collegiality;
procedural distance between instances;
exclusion of repeated participation by the same judge;
hierarchical control.

Procedure for Filing a Revision Appeal or Protest

A revision appeal addressed to the Court of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, or the Tashkent City Court is filed through the court that adopted the decision. That court is obliged to forward the appeal together with the case file to the revision instance within five days. If the appeal is filed against acts subject to revision review by the Supreme Court, it is filed directly with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

This mechanism performs two functions:

it ensures procedural linkage between the appeal and the case file;
it eliminates uncertainty in the movement of case materials.

In terms of content, a revision appeal must include the name of the court, information about the applicant, indication of the judicial act being challenged, the case number, the date of adoption of the act, the subject matter of the dispute, the applicant’s requests, and the grounds for the incorrectness of the judicial act, with references to laws, circumstances of the case, and evidence. For persons who did not participate in the case, it is mandatory to indicate which specific rights and legitimate interests were violated by the act that entered into legal force. The appeal must be signed by the appropriate person or by his or her representative.

The appeal must be accompanied by documents confirming payment of the state duty and postal expenses, documents confirming that copies were sent to other participants in the case, and, if signed by a representative, documents confirming the representative’s authority.

Special attention should be paid to the obligation of the person filing the appeal or protest to send or deliver to other persons participating in the case copies of the appeal and attachments that they do not have. In this way, the legislator strengthens the principles of adversarial proceedings and procedural equality of the parties even at the extraordinary stage of review.

Time Limits for Applying to the Revision Instance

Article 310 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan establishes the general rule: a revision appeal or protest is filed within one year from the date on which the decision, ruling, or resolution of the court of first instance entered into legal force. At the same time, the Code provides special three-month time limits in situations where the general time limit expired before the adoption of the cassation court’s resolution or before the issuance of the revision resolution by the courts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court. A missed time limit may be restored upon the applicant’s motion, provided that it is filed no later than three months from the date of expiration of the time limit and the reasons for missing the deadline are recognized as valid.

This structure is interesting from an academic perspective. On the one hand, the legislator seeks to ensure the stability of civil turnover by limiting in time the possibility of revision review. On the other hand, the legislator leaves the person an additional real opportunity to apply to the revision instance after completion of the previous stage of review, if the available time was exhausted due to the lengthy passage of the case through the instances.

Thus, the time-limit model of revision review under the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan is aimed at balancing two values:

legal certainty;
access to effective judicial control.

Acceptance of the Appeal for Proceedings, Refusal, and Return

The issue of accepting, refusing to accept, or returning a revision appeal in the courts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court is resolved by a judge individually no later than five days from the date of receipt of the appeal. A ruling is issued on acceptance or refusal.

The Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan distinguishes in detail between:

refusal to accept the appeal for proceedings;
return of the appeal;
leaving the appeal without consideration;
termination of proceedings on the appeal.

This distinction is of substantial practical importance.

Refusal to accept is primarily connected with the absence of the right to revision appeal or with the objective unsuitability of the judicial act for such review. Return of the appeal applies in cases of removable procedural defects: absence of a signature, missing attachments, lack of evidence confirming that copies were sent, absence of a document confirming payment of the state duty, and so on. After correcting the deficiencies, the person has the right to apply again.

The Supreme Court, in turn, exercises an additional filter: a judge of the Supreme Court examines the appeal and may either accept it and transfer it for consideration by the panel, or refuse to transfer it if there are no grounds for revision review. At the same time, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court or his or her deputy has the right to cancel the judge’s ruling refusing transfer of the appeal and to submit it for consideration by the panel.

This mechanism effectively forms a selective model for admitting cases to the Supreme Court, allowing it to focus its activity on genuinely significant judicial errors.

Limits of Consideration of a Case under the Revision Procedure

One of the central provisions of Chapter 36 is established in Article 324^6: when considering a case under the revision procedure, the court verifies, based on the case materials, the correctness of the application of substantive law and compliance with procedural law requirements by lower courts. New claims that were not the subject of consideration in the court of first instance are not accepted or considered.

This means that the revision instance:

does not replace the court of first instance;
does not transform the subject matter of the dispute;
does not allow procedural expansion of the dispute;
is not oriented toward a new factual construction of the case.

In addition, the Code directly provides that the following rules do not apply under the revision procedure:

consolidation of cases into one proceeding;
amendment of the subject matter or grounds of the claim, or the amount of claims;
filing of a counterclaim;
involvement of third parties in the case.

From an academic perspective, this confirms that revision proceedings are a stage of legal control, not a repeated full-scale adjudication of the dispute.

Procedure for Consideration of a Case in the Revision Instance

Consideration of a case in the revision instance is carried out in a court hearing according to the rules of the Code, taking into account the special features of Chapter 36. Proceedings begin with a report by the presiding judge or one of the judges, after which the explanations of the persons participating in the case who appeared are heard, as well as the opinion of the prosecutor. The court then retires to the deliberation room to adopt a resolution. The operative part is announced at the end of the hearing, while the full text of the resolution is prepared and signed within five days.

Persons participating in the case are notified of the time and place of the hearing. Their failure to appear, provided they have been duly notified, does not prevent consideration of the appeal. A person participating in the case has the right to submit a response to the appeal or protest within the established period. The revision court also has the right, upon motion of the persons participating in the case, to suspend enforcement of judicial acts until the end of the revision proceedings.

The time limit for considering a revision appeal is generally one month, and in exceptional cases it may be extended, but by no more than one month. A two-month period is established for consideration of a protest by the Presidium of the Supreme Court.

Powers of the Revision Court

Based on the results of considering an appeal or protest, the revision court has the right to:

leave the decision or resolution unchanged;
cancel the decision or resolution in whole or in part and adopt a new decision;
cancel the resolution and remand the case for new consideration to the appellate or cassation court whose judicial act was cancelled;
amend the decision or resolution;
cancel the decision in whole or in part and terminate proceedings in the case or leave the claim without consideration in whole or in part;
cancel certain judicial acts and leave in force one of the judicial acts previously adopted in the case;
cancel the decision or resolution and transfer the case materials to another court according to jurisdiction.

This list shows that the revision instance is vested with broad corrective powers. It may not only establish the existence of an error, but also:

adopt a new final judicial act itself;
reinstate a previously adopted act;
terminate proceedings;
transfer materials according to jurisdiction;
initiate new consideration at the appropriate stage.

At the same time, the powers of the revision instance are not unlimited. Its instructions are binding on the court reconsidering the case; however, it has no right to establish or deem proven circumstances that were not previously established or were rejected, to prejudge issues of reliability of evidence, or to indicate what specific decision must be adopted upon new consideration.

This important legislative limitation preserves the procedural independence of the lower court and prevents the transformation of the revision instance into a body of direct administration of justice.

Grounds for Cancellation or Amendment of Judicial Acts

Article 324-8 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan formulates the general rule: the grounds for amending or cancelling a decision, resolution, or ruling are the illegality or unfoundedness of the judicial act. At the same time, a judicial act that is correct in substance cannot be cancelled solely on formal grounds.

This rule is of fundamental importance. It establishes two basic criteria of judicial control:

Illegality — incorrect application of substantive law or violation of procedural law.
Unfoundedness — inconsistency between the court’s conclusions and the factual circumstances of the case, or incorrect assessment of evidence within the limits in which such errors acquire legal significance for the final judicial conclusion.

At the same time, the prohibition on cancelling a substantively correct act on purely formal grounds reflects the principle of procedural economy and stability of justice. In this way, the legislator seeks to prevent abuse of revision control as an instrument for endlessly delaying a dispute.

Correlation of the Revision Procedure with Other Forms of Review

For a proper understanding of the essence of revision, it is necessary to distinguish it from other stages of review.

Appeal is aimed at reviewing a decision that has not entered into legal force and allows broader control over the factual and legal aspects of the case.

Cassation is also a form of review of legality and validity of judicial acts; however, revision proceedings follow cassation as a more exceptional stage of control.

Review based on newly discovered circumstances is qualitatively different from revision, since it is based not on identifying errors in the application of law using already known case materials, but on the discovery of new legally significant circumstances or other special grounds expressly specified by law.

Therefore, the revision procedure occupies an intermediate but independent place between ordinary instance-based review and extraordinary review based on newly discovered circumstances.

Significance of the Revision Procedure for Economic Justice

Despite its extraordinary nature, revision proceedings perform several strategically important functions.

The first is a guarantee function. It creates an additional mechanism for protecting the rights of participants in economic turnover against significant judicial errors.

The second is a corrective function. Through revision review, errors not eliminated in previous instances are corrected.

The third is a unifying function. Revision resolutions, especially those of the Supreme Court, influence the uniformity of judicial practice.

The fourth is a preventive function. The existence of subsequent control disciplines lower courts and encourages more careful application of law.

The fifth is a public function. The participation of the prosecutor and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Business Entities shows that the revision procedure serves not only the private interests of the parties, but also the interests of legality in the economic sphere.

Review of Judicial Acts under the Revision Procedure

No.	Parameter	Content
1	Stage of proceedings	Review of judicial acts that have entered into legal force under the revision procedure; an independent extraordinary stage of economic court proceedings.
2	Legal basis	Chapter 36 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, “Proceedings for the Review of Judicial Acts under the Revision Procedure.”
3	Which judicial acts may generally be subject to revision	Decisions, rulings, and resolutions that have entered into legal force and are listed in Article 306 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, including acts of the court of first instance that have already been considered under appellate or cassation procedure, as well as certain resolutions of appellate, cassation, and revision instances.
4	Who may file a revision appeal	Persons participating in the case; persons not involved in the case if the court adopted a decision concerning their rights and obligations; the Commissioner under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the Protection of the Rights and Legitimate Interests of Business Entities; the prosecutor, in cases provided by the Code.
5	Form of application	Appeal or protest. The Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan directly classifies an application to the revision instance as a form of appeal or protest.
6	Which courts consider cases under the revision procedure	The Judicial Panels for Economic Cases of the Court of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional courts, and the Tashkent City Court; the Judicial Panel for Economic Cases of the Supreme Court; in certain cases, the Presidium of the Supreme Court.
7	Composition of the court	Collegially by a panel of three judges; in the Presidium of the Supreme Court, with the participation of a majority of the members of the Presidium.
8	May the same judge participate again?	No. A judge who participated in the first, appellate, cassation, or revision instance in the case may not participate in subsequent review of the same case in combinations of instances prohibited by the Code.
9	Where a revision appeal to a regional-level revision instance is filed	Through the court that adopted the decision. That court is obliged to forward the appeal together with the case file to the relevant revision instance within five days.
10	Where a revision appeal to the Supreme Court is filed	Directly with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
11	General time limit for filing a revision appeal	One year from the date on which the decision, ruling, or resolution of the court of first instance entered into legal force.
12	Special time limits	The Code also provides special three-month time limits in certain cases where the general one-year period effectively expired before completion of the previous stage of review.
13	Can the time limit be restored?	Yes. A missed time limit may be restored upon motion, provided that the motion is filed no later than three months from the date of expiration of the time limit and the reasons for missing the deadline are recognized as valid.
14	What must be indicated in the appeal	Name of the court; applicant’s details; information about other participants; indication of the judicial act being challenged; case number; date of adoption; subject matter of the dispute; applicant’s requests; arguments concerning illegality or unfoundedness of the act; references to the law, circumstances of the case, and evidence. For a person who did not participate in the case, it must be stated which rights and legitimate interests were violated.
15	Who signs the appeal	The person filing the appeal or his or her representative. If the appeal is signed by a representative, special authority must be confirmed.
16	Mandatory attachments	Documents confirming payment of the state duty and postal expenses; evidence of sending copies of the appeal to other participants; documents confirming the representative’s authority.
17	Is the applicant obliged to send copies to other persons?	Yes. The person filing the appeal or protest is obliged to send or deliver to other persons participating in the case copies of the appeal and attachments that they do not have.
18	What the court does after receiving an appeal in a regional revision instance	A judge individually decides within five days whether to accept the appeal for proceedings, refuse acceptance, or return the appeal. A ruling is issued based on the result.
19	What the Supreme Court does after receiving an appeal	A judge of the Supreme Court preliminarily examines the appeal and either transfers it for consideration in a court hearing by the panel or refuses such transfer.
20	Can a refusal by a judge of the Supreme Court be overcome?	Yes. The Chairperson of the Supreme Court or his or her deputy may disagree with the refusal and transfer the appeal for consideration by the Judicial Panel for Economic Cases of the Supreme Court.
21	Grounds for return of the appeal	Procedural defects: absence of a signature, required attachments, evidence of sending copies, documents confirming authority, payment of the state duty, and other removable violations of the form and content of the appeal.
22	Can the appeal be filed again after return?	Yes, after elimination of the circumstances that served as grounds for return, provided that the established time limit has not expired or has been restored.
23	Limits of consideration of the case under the revision procedure	The court verifies, based on the case materials, the correctness of application of substantive law and compliance with procedural law requirements by lower courts. New claims that were not considered in the first instance are not accepted.
24	Can the subject matter or grounds of the claim be changed?	No. In the revision instance, the rules on changing the subject matter or grounds of the claim, increasing or decreasing claims, filing a counterclaim, consolidating cases, and involving third parties do not apply.
25	Are new claims accepted?	No. New claims that were not the subject of consideration in the court of first instance are not considered by the revision instance.
26	Can a response to the appeal be submitted?	Yes. Persons participating in the case have the right to submit a response to a revision appeal or protest.
27	Is attendance of the parties mandatory?	Persons are notified of the time and place of the hearing; failure of duly notified persons to appear does not prevent consideration of the appeal.
28	Can enforcement of a judicial act be suspended?	Yes. The revision court has the right to suspend enforcement of the challenged judicial act upon motion of persons participating in the case.
29	Time limit for considering a revision appeal	As a rule, one month; in exceptional cases, the period may be extended, but by no more than one month. For the Presidium of the Supreme Court, a two-month period is provided for consideration of a protest.
30	How the court hearing proceeds	The hearing begins with a report by the presiding judge or one of the judges; then explanations of the persons who appeared and the opinion of the prosecutor are heard; after that the court retires to the deliberation room to issue a resolution.
31	What final judicial act is adopted	A resolution of the revision court.
32	What powers the revision instance has	To leave the act unchanged; cancel it in whole or in part and adopt a new act; cancel it and remand the case for new consideration; amend the act; terminate proceedings; leave the claim without consideration; cancel certain acts and leave in force one of the previously adopted acts; transfer materials according to jurisdiction.
33	Can the revision instance itself adopt a new decision?	Yes, if there are grounds provided by the Code and this does not require going beyond the powers of the revision court.
34	When the case is remanded for new consideration	When the violations committed cannot be remedied by the revision instance itself and new consideration is required in the appellate or cassation instance whose judicial act is cancelled.
35	Are lower courts bound by the instructions of the revision court?	Yes. The instructions of the revision instance are binding upon new consideration, but within the limits established by the Code.
36	What the revision instance may not do when remanding the case for new consideration	It may not establish or deem proven circumstances that were not established or were rejected; it may not prejudge issues concerning the reliability of evidence, the superiority of some evidence over others, or what decision must be adopted upon new consideration.
37	Grounds for cancellation or amendment of a judicial act	Illegality or unfoundedness of the decision, resolution, or ruling.
38	Can a substantively correct act be cancelled only on formal grounds?	No. A judicial act that is correct in substance may not be cancelled solely on formal grounds.
39	Significance of the revision stage	Correction of significant judicial errors, ensuring legality, control over uniformity of practice, and additional protection of the rights of business entities and other participants in economic disputes. This conclusion follows from the structure of Chapter 36 of the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan.