Odiljon Nematillaev – a guest researcher from the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
Assalomu alaykum and welcome to my research secondment blog post. I am Odiljon Nematillaev – currently a lecturer at the Department of State-Legal Sciences of the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan and a researcher at Lund University. Hereby, I hold an immense pleasure and feel honored to present a blog post on my secondment at one of the most esteemed educational institutions of the world – Lund University.
Founded in 1666, Lund University is the leading Swedish educational and research institution constantly ranked among the top 100 universities in the world. About 47 thousand students’ study at the university. To date, a total of 5 researchers, who graduated from Lund University and worked at this institution, have been awarded the most recognized international “Nobel Prize”.
From the very first days of secondment visit friendly team of Department of Sociology of Law, including Head of Department dear Anna Lundberg and MOCCA principal Investigator Rustam Urinboyev, but not limited to doctoral students and other project managers, welcomed us warmly, for which we express our sincere gratitude. During one-month the research stay, we were honored to engage and participate in numerous scientific and educational activities such as seminars, courses and meetings of different kind.
At the beginning of our research stay, we got acquainted with the activities of the Central Library of Lund University, the Department of Sociology of Law and the Information Resource Centers of the Faculty of Law. Along with my colleague Diyorbek Ibragimov, we were familiarized with the educational processes and scientific seminars organized at Lund University. In particular, we have observed and received important hands-on experience about modern information and communication technologies widely used in the educational process and scientific research being conducted by the professors, lecturers and researchers of the Department of Sociology of Law.
Under the project, we have participated in a one-week informative seminar on the topic of “Implementation of Digital Tools to Enhance Student-Teacher Interaction” conducted from 17 to 22th of November of 2024 and organized by researchers of the Department of Sociology of Law Mr. Sh. Eraliev and D. Khamzaev, and gained valuable knowledge about the features of the introduction of modern digital technologies in scientific processes, such as “Workflow” “Personal Knowledge Management” “AI”.
During this seminar-training, we, as a guest researcher, as well as representatives of a number of educational and scientific institutions including Lund University of Sweden, West England University, Istanbul Medipol University, Anti-Corruption Business Council under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, Semirechye University of Kazakhstan and other educational institutions and organizations showcased presentations prepared within the framework of research areas.
Particularly, I was given the unique opportunity of presenting my research paper on “Issues of improving the legal mechanisms of corruption proofing of existing legislation: theoretical and practical aspects”, which is designed for my acquisition of the PhD degree in Law. In addition, as a researcher I was able to provide detailed information about the legal reforms carried out in Uzbekistan in recent years and around the globe on the matter anti-corruption expertise of existing legislative acts, which is a relatively new legal institution that came to existence in the early 2000’s. Moreover, in my research paper, I emphasized the significance of the anti-corruption expertise of existing legislation and their drafts as the one of the effective measures to prevent corrupt factors and mechanisms, such as lobbying, nepotism, and conflict of interest in society and the legal system of countries, which occur the most.
One of the truly productive courses we took as researchers and benefited from the most was the one that had been organized by the Department of Sociology of Law for master’s students on the topic “Law, Society and Corruption”. Being submerged into Swedish world-class course was the premier example of fruitful secondment stay within the project MOCCA. The course was planned for the 2nd academic year of the master’s program and consisted of 7.5 academic credits. Admission to the course required at least three semesters (90 credits) of Bachelor’s degree in Sociology of Law or a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, Law, Criminology, Political Science, Social Sciences. Assessment was based on two components: a written assignment after the completed seminar (50%) and, as a final exam, writing an independent work of at least 2500 words (50%) by reading educational literature and answering pre-assigned questions within 5 days. To complete the course, the student must have had the ability to study and explain the emergence, causes, and consequences of corruption from a socio-legal and interdisciplinary point of view, as well as the anti-corruption strategy.
Furthermore, as a part of our research secondment visit, we were also invited to and partook in a week-long scientific seminars organized by Department of Sociology of Law within the framework of the project “MOCCA: Multi-Level Orders of Corruption in Central Asia” on the occasion of visit of a delegation consisting of professors and teachers of the Tashkent State University of Economics. At the same time, I was able to participate in a series of meetings organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Sweden at Lund University on November 22, 2024, where the Uzbekistan’s newly appointed Ambassador to Sweden Mr. Rahmatulla Nurimbetov were present himself. During the event, opportunities for cooperation in promising areas such as projects being implemented between the two countries, green development, innovation, and sustainable development were discussed, and series of speeches were made on the development of intercultural ties.
Our time at Lund University was not only an enriching academic journey but also a crucial phase in our professional development, which reinforced our belief that international collaboration and the exchange of ideas are essential for modern day legal minds. The very experience has inspired fresh perspectives that we are eager to incorporate into both our scholarly activity and teaching process as well. Looking ahead, we intend to leverage the knowledge and skills we have acquired to push forward scientific research.
As a closing note, absolutely complete duty of mine is to mention that I was able to collect the official Swedish legislative perspectives on the questions of corruption proofing of legislation thanks to the unweaving assistance of Isabel Schoultz – Associate Professor at Department of Sociology of Law at Lund University, who had sent the formal requesting letter to the Parliament of Sweden on behalf of my research area and shared with the official response. Not limited to this, she did and still comes in handy in all means of practical and scientific cooperation as well as assistance with great enthusiasm, whenever I email her, for which my continual acknowledgements to her.
To mark the end of our research secondment stay at Lund University Sweden, particularly in friendly and open-minded environment of the Department of Sociology of Law, we must truly emphasize first the enormous and eye-opening experience gained during this fruitful one month, second the arsenal of collected data on our research interests both of which was possible thanks to the mutually agreed and signed memorandum between The Law Enforcement Academy and the Department of Sociology of Law of Lund University and the EC’s ongoing project MOCCA. It was undoubtfully my honor to be the part of such mindful project, which aim is to enhance the legal and cultural understanding of researchers of Academia through exchange of knowledge and successful practices.