Abstract
This article examines how authority gained public recognition in traditional Kazakh society through the relationship between charisma, justice, and the practice of «biys». It reconstructs the values and procedures through which authority came to be regarded as legitimate and presents their interaction as an analytical model. The methodological framework combines historical-philosophical and cultural-historical analysis, comparative-philosophical, axiological, hermeneutic, and systemic-structural approaches, together with principles drawn from philosophical anthropology, the philosophy of culture, and legal pluralism. The analysis draws on 33 historical, legal, ethnocultural, anthropological, and theoretical works selected for their direct relevance to the research question. Claims concerning the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are reconstructed retrospectively from later legal compilations and nineteenth-century descriptions. The findings suggest that a «biy's» authority rested less on formal office than on the party’s voluntary choice, knowledge of custom, eloquence, consistency between word and conduct, and the public assessment of earlier decisions. The acceptance of adjudication depended on its substance as well as public hearings, attention to both parties, reasoned argument, the possibility of appeal, and the social consequences of reconciliation. The analysis develops the «Moral Authority – Justice – Reconciliation» model to explain legitimacy as a public relationship renewed through adjudication, public reasoning, and reconciliation, while relating Kazakh historical experience to theories of charisma, procedural justice, and legal pluralism. Keywords: authority, charisma, legitimacy, justice, institution of biys, customary law, Kazakh worldview.