High Court of Appeals
Encyclopedia
History
The institution of the court of appealsCourt of Appeals
A court of appeals is an appellate court generally.Court of Appeals may refer to:*Military Court of Appeals *Corte d'Assise d'Appello *Philippine Court of Appeals*High Court of Appeals of Turkey*United States courts of appeals...
was Divan
Divan
A divan was a high governmental body in a number of Islamic states, or its chief official .-Etymology:...
in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
until the 19th century. The first modern court of appeals (Divan-ı Ahkam-ı Adliye) which was the first form of today's Yargıtay was established during the reign of Abdülaziz
Abdülâziz
Abdülaziz I or Abd Al-Aziz, His Imperial Majesty was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 25 June 1861 and 30 May 1876...
on 6 March 1868. There are different view on the date of foundation. Some jurists hold that 6 March 1868 is the founding date when the Padishah
Padishah
Padishah, Padshah, Padeshah, Badishah or Badshah is a superlative royal title, composed of the Persian pād "master" and the widespread shāh "king", which was adopted by several monarchs claiming the highest rank, roughly equivalent to the ancient Persian notion of "The Great" or "Great King", and...
announced his will and others hold that 1 April 1868, when the statute of the court was passed is the founding date. Its first president was Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, the governor of Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
. The high court was composed of members from Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
and non-Muslim communities in a ratio of two thirds and one third respectively. The name "Divan-ı Ahkam-ı Adliye" was changed June 18, 1879 to "Mahkeme-i Temyiz" (Appeal Court) by an act on foundation of courts.
During the Turkish War of Independence
Turkish War of Independence
The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...
, "Mahkeme-i Temyiz" transferred its case files to a Temporary Committee of Appeals (Muvakkat Temyiz Heyeti), which was formed on June 7, 1920 in Sivas by the government that replaced the government in İstanbul upon the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. On 7 June 1920 the Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Grand National Assembly of Turkey
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey , usually referred to simply as the Meclis , is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence...
passed a law that established four chambers for appeal cases referring to civil, criminal, religious justice and one for petitions. The Court of Cassation in Istanbul continued to exist. When Istanbul came under the reign of the national government on 4 November 1922 the court were united by transferring the files from Istanbul to Sivas. The Temporary Committee of Appeals moved from Sivas to Eskişehir
Eskisehir
Eskişehir is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. According to the 2009 census, the population of the city is 631,905. The city is located on the banks of the Porsuk River, 792 m above sea level, where it overlooks the fertile Phrygian Valley. In the nearby...
on November 14, 1923 due to better transportation potential. At the same time, the committee's name was changed to Court of Appeals (Temyiz Mahkemesi).
In 1935, the Supreme Court of Appeals moved to its new building in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, which was built by the renowned Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n architect Clemens Holzmeister
Clemens Holzmeister
Clemens Holzmeister was a prominent Austrian architect and stage designer of the early twentieth century. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his life's work as containing 673 projects. He is the father of Judith Holzmeister.Holzmeister was born in the village of Fulpmes in the Tyrol state of...
. On January 10, 1945, the name of the "Court of Appeals" was changed to "Court of Cassation" (Yargıtay). The latest act (Law 2797) related to the Court of Cassation is from February 4, 1983.
Administration
The Court is divided into 30 chambers according to their particular specialized field. There are 20 civil chambers, 10 penal chambers. Until 2001 there were 21 civil and 11 criminal chambers. A chamber has five members, one of which is president of the chamber. Judgments are taken by majority. One elected judge by the all judges of the Court of Cassation presides over the entire Court as general President. All presidents and judge-members of civil chambers form the General Civil Assembly, and all presidents and judge-members of criminal chambers constitute General Criminal Assembly (tr: Yargıtay Ceza Genel Kurulu). The General Assemblies decide on cases, if the lower court does not comply with the chamber's decision, persisting in its own decision and on cases that the Chief Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation has appealed. There are 250 high judges, 32 heads of chamber and 440 rapporteur-judges whose duty is to carry out preliminary preparation and to explain case-file to the judge-members of this Court and 144 prosecutors working at the Court of Cassation. In the civil chambers, average case-file number which come to these chambers annually is 261,716 and duration of handling the case-file changes from two months to three months. In the criminal chambers, 139,025 case-files are concluded on the average annually.The High Court of Appeals is administered by the following judges (as of October 2006):
- Nazım Kaynak, First President
- Hasan Erbil, Chief Public Prosecutor
- İhsan Akçin, Deputy First President
- Erdal Şanlı, Deputy First President
- Aydın Boşgelmez, Secretary General
Reforms
As recorded in the European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
2005 report: “The Law Establishing the Intermediate Courts of Appeal came into force on 1 June 2005. The establishment of the Courts of Appeal will substantially reduce the case load of
the Court of Cassation and enable it to concentrate on its function of providing guidance to lower courts on points of law of general public importance. The Law provides that the Courts are to be established within two years of its entry into force.” The progress report of the European Commission on Turkey dated 9 November 2010 stated: "The regional courts of appeal are not operational yet. By law, they should have been in operation by June 2007."
In the country report 2009 Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
wrote: "Decisions of Turkey’s Court of Cassation continued to flout international human rights law and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and demonstrate that the judiciary remains a site of institutionalized resistance to reform." The organization criticized a March 2008 precedent decision by the General Penal Board of the Court of Cassation, ruling that individuals joining demonstrations where the PKK had called for public participation were to be charged with “membership” in the PKK for “committing a crime in the name of the organization.” In a report of 17 June 2010 Amnesty International called for an end of prosecution of children under anti-terrorism legislation. The organization stated, "Thousands of children in Turkey, some as young as 12, have been prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation, solely for their alleged participation in demonstrations considered by the government to be in support of terrorism. Prosecutions are often based on insubstantive evidence or statements taken from the children under pressure. The anti-terrorism legislation that the children are prosecuted under is vague and overly broad in its wording and unfair in its application by judges and prosecutors." On 19 November 2010 Amnesty International referred to legal changes regarding trials of minors: "The Turkish government amended the law to prevent the prosecution of child demonstrators under anti-terrorism legislation solely for their alleged participation in demonstrations. Under these amendments, all children previously convicted under the Anti-Terror Law will have their convictions quashed and all children prosecuted under other laws will be tried in Children’s Courts rather than adult Special Heavy Penal Courts."
These and other criticisms led to further reforms. On 1 March 2011 the Law Library of Congress
Law Library of Congress
The Law Library of the United States Congress was established in 1832.-Mission statement:From the Law Library of Congress website:"The mission of the Law Library of Congress is to provide research and legal information to the U.S. Congress as well as to U.S. Federal Courts and Executive Agencies,...
reported: "Turkey's Parliament passed a controversial judicial reform bill on February 9, 2011. Under the Law on the Amendment of Certain Laws, the highest level of the judiciary will be restructured. The Court of Appeals (Court of Cassation, Yargıtay, the highest court for civil and criminal cases) will have the number of its chambers increased to 38 from 32, and the Council of State (or Supreme Administrative Court, Danıştay, the country's highest administrative court) will have 15 divisions instead of the current 13.
In signing the bill into law on February 14, Turkish President Abdullah Gul remarked that had he not approved it, "200,000 cases could have faced the statute of limitations."