Commentary to article 6. Interpretation of the norms of civil legislation  The Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan  

The interpretation of legal norms is understood as the precise establishment of their actual meaning. To do this, first of all, it is necessary to understand every word of the text of the legal norm as it is understood in ordinary literary speech. But some legal terms have their own content, which does not coincide with the general understanding of the word. For example, in the usual sense, "responsibility" is understood as the obligation to perform certain actions. In the legal sense (including in the norms of the Civil Code), "liability" is the application of penalties unfavorable to a person who has violated his legal obligations (for example, compensation for damages). In the usual sense, the word "creditor" means a person who has lent money to someone, and "debtor" means someone who is obliged to return the money received. In the current Civil Code, a "debtor" is a person who, at the request of a creditor, is obliged to perform any action defined by law or contract, both monetary and non-monetary (for example, to perform work, transfer any property in kind), The "creditor" is the one who has the right to demand that the specified action be performed.

There are many terms in the Civil Code that are rarely found in everyday colloquial language, and therefore incomprehensible to many lay readers. As a rule, the use of such a term is followed by its explanation: art. 10 (entrepreneurship), art. 17 (civil legal capacity), art. 33 (legal entity), art. 299 (pledge).

Great difficulties in determining the exact meaning of the norm to be applied arise when there are contradictions between two or more existing legal norms that address the same issue in different ways. There are several ways to resolve the contradiction.:

1) in the event of a conflict between norms of different legal force, the norm contained in an act of higher legal force is subject to application, regardless of other circumstances. For example, if a law contradicts the Constitution, then the Constitution applies; if a presidential decree contradicts the law, then the law applies; if a Cabinet resolution contradicts a presidential decree, then the decree applies;  

2) if there is a contradiction between two civil law acts of equal legal force, priority is usually given to the act adopted later, before the act adopted earlier. This is confirmed by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which has the force of the constitutional law, "On the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan" dated December 26, 1995, art. 24 of which provides for: "In case of discrepancies between acts of the President of the Republic having the same legal force, one should be guided by the act that entered into force later, unless otherwise established by the relevant act of the President of the Republic." Now this rule is fixed in the Law "On Regulatory Legal Acts".

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The commentary was prepared within the framework of the scientific and practical research program of the Scientific Research Center of Private Law of the Kazakh State Law University.  

Head of the working group on the preparation of the draft Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Professor Suleimenov M.K.

Deputy head Professor Basin Yu.G.