Supreme Court Upholds Herders' Right of Passage

TALAS — The Supreme Court yesterday recognized the customary right of transhumant herders to drive their livestock across industrial highway easements without paying municipal licensing penalties, in a decision that lawyers described as one of the few in which the court has given effect to customary practice.

The case, known in the court list as the Pastoral Transit Case, arose from penalties imposed on herding families who drove sheep and cattle across a highway easement on their spring move from winter quarters to the summer pastures. The municipal authorities had treated the crossings as unlicensed use of the easement and fined the herders for each crossing.

The court held that the herders' right of passage along their migration routes was established long before the easements were created and had not been extinguished by them. It ordered the penalties annulled. Herders' representatives said the decision would ease the spring and autumn migrations, when flocks must cross the main road and rail corridors of the valleys. A lawyer for the municipality said it would study the judgment and review its licensing rules.