Abstract

Digital sovereignty has emerged as a central concept in contemporary debates on state power, governance, and regulation, particularly in regions undergoing rapid political and economic transformation. In Central Asia, governments increasingly rely on legal frameworks to assert control over digital spaces, data flows, and emerging technologies, reshaping the relationship between the state, market actors, and society. This paper examines Uzbekistan as a case study to analyze how digital sovereignty is constructed and exercised through law as a form of legal and political power.

Since the mid-2010s, Uzbekistan has pursued wide-ranging reforms aimed at digitalization, innovation, and economic liberalization, while simultaneously strengthening regulatory oversight over data governance, digital trade, and information infrastructure. Drawing on an analysis of legislation, policy documents, and regulatory practices, this paper explores how legal instruments are used to balance competing objectives: fostering technological development and foreign investment, maintaining state control over digital spaces, and protecting national interests. Particular attention is paid to data localization requirements, digital platform regulation, and the evolving legal treatment of cross-border data flows.

The paper argues that Uzbekistan’s approach reflects a distinctive model of state-led digital sovereignty, in which law functions not merely as a technical regulatory tool but as a mechanism of power that reconfigures digital spaces and redistributes authority among public and private actors. While formally aligned with global discourses on innovation and digital economy development, these legal reforms also embed strategies of control and governance that are characteristic of broader Central Asian political and legal traditions.

By situating Uzbekistan within the wider context of Central Asia and Central Eurasia, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on how states in the region rethink sovereignty, space, and power in the digital age. The findings highlight the importance of legal frameworks in shaping digital transformation and offer insights into how emerging regulatory models in Central Asia may influence regional governance, digital trade, and state-society relations.