International relations department
International law chair
There are 33 members in the Department, including 3 Doctors in Law, 15 Candidates in Law, and 4 PhDs and 8 masters of law. Most of the lecturers have educational experience in foreign institutions and scientific organizations in the area of own scientific interests, almost each of them is the leading specialist in Kazakhstan. Department members developed a number of special authorial courses, tutorials on various spheres of international law. The chair carries out strategic partnership with such organizations, as UN Representation in RK, the OSCE Center in RK, the Kazakhstan Association of International law, International Associations of Law students (ILSA), the International Committee of the Red Cross, the American society of international law, Institute of a name of Max Planck of Comparative public and international law (Heidelberg, Germany), Institute of a name of Max Planck of the International private law (Heidelberg, Germany), Kansas City Missouri University (USA), University of Havre (France), University of Cadiz (Spain), Gumbaldt's University (Berlin, Germany), Harbin Technological university (People's Republic of China), Tszilinsky university (People's Republic of China), Dundee University (Scotland), University of Tsukuby (Japan), etc. Students constantly get high scores in national and international competitions, scientific conferences, and game court tournaments. The motto of the Department, "Equal of the firsts, the first among equals", represents the Department’s aim to improve achievements and maintain image of the leader of Kazakhstan's education.
Head of the department
Sairambayeva Zhuldyz Talgatovna
Department contacts
History of the department
Department of International Law was established in 1990 as part of the Faculty of Law at al-Farabi Kazakh National University and became the first in the history of Kazakhstan specialized international law department. A founder of the department was Associate Professor, (later Doctor of Law, Professor) M.A.Sarsembayev and he was the first head of the department and managed it from 1990 to 2000. Establishment of the Department of International Law was connected with the process of gaining of Independence by the Republic of Kazakhstan. Previously specialized departments of international law were only in Moscow and Kiev. In al-Farabi Kazakh State University "International Law" discipline was studied at the Department of Public Law and Soviet construction, also at the Department of Administrative Law for a while (in the first half of the 70s) by different lecturers, including U.D. Dzhekebayev, N.S.Sagyndykov, M.A.Binder, A.S.Bogoduhov, M.A .Sarsembayev.
The first representative of Kazakhstan who received his the degree of candidate of sciences in international law, was a U.D. Dzhekebaev (MSU, 1959). In 1978, M.A.Sarsembaev (MGIMO) defended his thesis in international law.Those years he was lecturing on international law at al-Farabi University. In the period from 1985 to 1987, he was sent to organize the law department at Kabul University (Afghanistan) and give lectures on this subject. On his return from Afghanistan in 1989 M.A.Sarsembaev as a dean of the Faculty of Law, began the organizational preparations for establishment of a specialized Department of International Law in the Faculty of Law taking into consideration external economic independence of the Kazakh SSR.
After Kazakhstan has gained its independence, special attention in the training program of international lawyers was given to the aspects of foreign policy. During the period from 1990 to 1993 the core lecturers of the department started to form, the first members of which were G.B.Ispaeva, R.G. Ahmad, A.B.Idrisov, A.K.Urtembaev, P.K.Umirzakov, K.B.Batyrbaev, A. Karashev, S.Zh.Aydarbaev, Zh.M.Amanzholov, G.A.Mashimbaeva.
In 1994 M.A.Sarsembaev defended his doctoral thesis on International Law at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1998, the first Kazakhstan Dissertation Council for candidates in "International Law" was founded. S.J.Aydarbaev was first who defended the candidate thesis in the Council in 1999; he was head of the Department of International Law from 2000 to December 2003. From 2004 to September 2008 due to his doctoral studies the duties of head of the Department were transferred to Associate Professor, M.S. Dosymbekova. Since 2008, S.J. Aidarbayev again assumed his responsibilities as head of the Department. In 2011 he successfully defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Law, in September 2017 he was appointed as a dean of the Faculty of International Relations. The head of the department of international law was appointed a doctor of jurisprudence Professor Sairambaeva Zhuldyz Talgatovna. She is an expert in the field of international law, in 2001 she successfully defended the dissertation on the topic: "International legal regulation of the status of transnational corporations".