Which act prevails in Uzbekistan when two rules conflict

Your compliance team is building a licensing timeline. The banking law says the Central Bank decides within one month. A Central Bank regulation, for a related case, says two months. Which date goes into the plan?

Short answer: Uzbekistan answers this in one article of one law. If the two acts have different legal force, the higher one applies. If they have equal force, the later one applies, unless one ministry or agency is specially empowered for the field, in which case its act ranks higher. And where the conflict arises between an individual and the state, it is read in the individual's favor.

The ladder of acts

The law on normative legal acts (art. 6) lists every kind of act in this order:

1. Constitution
2. Laws
3. Resolutions of the chambers of the Oliy Majlis
4. Decrees and resolutions of the President
5. Orders of the Head of the Presidential Administration
6. Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers
7. Orders and resolutions of ministries and agencies
8. Decisions of local authorities

The Constitution and laws have "unconditional supremacy" (art. 8). The President's acts, Cabinet resolutions, ministry and agency acts and local decisions are by-laws (art. 7). Legal force is set by the Constitution, the powers and status of the body that adopted the act, the type of act and its date of adoption (art. 18, part 1). Lower bodies act on the basis of the acts above them: the Cabinet on laws and presidential acts (art. 13), ministries and agencies only where a law, a presidential act or a Cabinet resolution gives them the power (art. 14).

Item 5 is new: it was added on 14 August 2026. These orders are adopted on the basis of the Constitution, laws and the President's acts (art. 12-1), but article 7, which sorts acts into laws and by-laws, does not mention them yet.

Two more rules keep by-laws in their place. Every act must match the acts above it (art. 18, part 2). And a by-law may not set norms on questions that must be regulated at the level of a law (art. 11).

The four tests in article 18

Run them in this order.

1. Different force? Apply the act with higher legal force (part 3). A law beats a Central Bank regulation, for example.
2. Equal force? Apply the act adopted later (part 4), unless test 3 applies.
3. Two ministries or agencies of the same status? If one of them is specially empowered to regulate the field, its act has higher force than the other's (part 5). This is the one exception to "later wins", so check it before you apply test 2.
4. An individual against the state? All contradictions and ambiguities in legislation that arise between a person and state bodies are interpreted in the person's favor (part 6, added in February 2024).

Where the Central Bank fits

The Central Bank adopts normative acts "within its powers", binding on everyone in Uzbekistan (Central Bank law, art. 9). No article places the Central Bank on the ladder by name. Its acts rank below laws because of two rules: laws have unconditional supremacy (art. 8), and every act must match the acts of higher force (art. 18, part 2). So when a Central Bank regulation and a law disagree on the same point, the law applies (art. 18, part 3).

A real pair, worked through

What each rule decides:

• Banking law, art. 20, part 10: Decision on state registration of a bank and issue of its banking license(s).
• Central Bank regulation 3252, p. 29-2: Decision on issuing an Islamic-banking license to a bank that already holds a banking license.

Step one is not the ladder. It is the question: are these the same case? The law's month is for registering a new bank and issuing its licenses. The regulation's two months are for a second license to a bank that already exists. The banking law answers the second case itself: article 20-1, part 10 gives the Central Bank two months to decide on an Islamic-banking license for a bank that already holds a banking license.

So there is no conflict. The one-month rule (art. 20) governs a new bank. The two-month rule governs the second license, and the regulation repeats the law's own term. A plan for an existing bank's Islamic-banking license uses two months.

That is the method in miniature. Two different numbers are not yet a conflict: the rules may cover neighboring cases, and the higher act may already deal with each case separately. Call it a conflict only when both rules answer the same question differently.

What happens to the losing rule

Article 18 tells you which rule to apply; it does not itself repeal the other. When a conflict with a higher act is found, a body with the power to adopt normative acts must take measures to remove it (art. 53, part 3). And when a new act is adopted, earlier acts that contradict it must be amended or formally repealed (art. 46, part 1). Until then, you apply the winning rule and can point to article 18 for why.

What to do now

• Before you plan around a deadline, find every act that sets one. Note each act's type and adoption date.
• Check it is the same case. Same actor, same action, same trigger. If not, both rules may apply side by side.
• If it is a real conflict, apply article 18 in order: force, then the specially empowered body, then date.
• Dealing with a state body as an individual? Part 6 reads an unclear or contradictory rule in your favor; cite it in writing. The law speaks of a human being and does not say whether a company can rely on it.
• Keep the reasoning on file. A short note citing article 18 answers an inspector's "why did you follow this one?".

For a worked example in a regulated field, see our guide to financial regulation and the Legal alerts. If two rules collide in your case, talk to us.

Sources

• Law No. ZRU-682 "On Normative Legal Acts" of 20 April 2021, arts. 6–8, 11, 12-1, 13, 14, 18, 46, 53 — lex.uz
• Law No. ZRU-582 "On the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan", art. 9 — lex.uz
• Law No. ZRU-580 "On Banks and Banking Activity", arts. 20, 20-1 — lex.uz
• Central Bank regulation on licensing banking activity, reg. No. 3252 of 25 May 2020, p. 29-2 — lex.uz

Checked against the law in Lex on 6 October 2026 · Juris Advisory

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