Kazakh Humanities and Law Institute of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter – RK) was established by the President Decree on 14 March 1994 # 1591 and the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Kazakhstan on May 26, 1994 # 564 on the initiative of the Minister of Justice, the legal scholar N.A.Shaikenov. The institute was given the task to prepare highly qualified lawyers.

At the beginning there were 12 branches. On November 5, 1996 KazHLI was transformed into Kazakh State Law University by the Government of Kazakhstan and transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Education and Science.

In 2000, the Kazakh State Law University was united with the Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and on February 14, 2000 Kazakh State Law Academy was created (KazSLA).

On October 24, 2001 Republican State Enterprise was transformed into JSC “KAZGUU University” (KAZGUU) with its head office in Astana.

In September 2007 Kazguu signed the Great Charter of Universities in Bologna.