Council of Judges and Prosecutors

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Hâkimler ve Savcılar Kurulu
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founding 1981
Headquarters Ankara
Authority management Abdülhamit Gül
Website www.hsk.gov.tr

The Council of Judges and Prosecutors ( Turkish Hâkimler ve Savcılar Kurulu , HSK ), until 2017 the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors ( Turkish Hâkimler ve Savcılar Yüksek Kurulu , HSYK ), is responsible within the Turkish judiciary for the disciplinary control of the courts and for personnel issues . The most important task is the election of the members of the Council of State (three quarters of the members) and the Court of Cassation .

The body was established on May 13, 1981 by Law No. 2461 on the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors. Major changes were made in the course of the constitutional referenda of 2010 (Law No. 6087) and 2017 .

precursor

In the 1924 Constitution , the Ministry of Justice was responsible for appointing, deploying, and promoting judges and prosecutors. The ministry could also impose disciplinary sanctions. In addition, the ministry was responsible for establishing new courts (chambers of certain courts). On July 4, 1934, Law 2556 on Judges was passed. This law provided that a council (Turkish: meclis ) made up of members from the Court of Cassation and departments in the Ministry of Justice should decide on the promotion of judges.

The constitution of 1961 provided for a high council for judges (Turkish Yüksek Hâkimler Kurulu ) in articles 143 and 144 and a high council for public prosecutors (Turkish Yüksek Savcılar Kurulu ) in article 137 . The Council for Prosecutors consisted of the Minister of Justice (chairman), three representatives from the Ministry and three representatives from the Court of Cassation. The council of judges consisted of 18 full members and five substitute members. Six representatives came from the Court of Cassation; six representatives were elected from among first-class judges. The parliament and the senate selected a further three representatives from this group. The Minister of Justice could attend the meetings but had no voting rights. That changed on September 20, 1971 with Law 1488. The Minister of Justice was given voting rights. Parliament and the Senate no longer elected members. That was now the responsibility of the Chamber Assembly at the Court of Cassation.

The situation between 1980 and 2010

The 1982 constitution laid down the following principles in Article 159 of the constitution.

  • Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Justice and the Secretary of State is a natural member ( ex officio or ex officio ).
  • The President elects three members from proposals from the Court of Cassation and two members from proposals from the Council of State for four years. Re-election is possible.
  • The legal action against decisions of the Council is excluded.
  • The budget and the office are attached to the Ministry of Justice .
  • The Control Council (Turkish Teftiş Kurulu ), which examines judges and prosecutors, is affiliated with the ministry.

The 2010 constitutional amendment

After the constitutional referendum of September 12, 2010 , the structure and functioning of the Council were reformed by a new law on the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors with Law No. 6087, which came into force on December 11, 2010. The number of members was increased from seven to 22 and three departments were created, the first of which is responsible for the deployment and promotion of judges and prosecutors, the second is responsible for disciplinary matters and career termination. The third department is responsible for appointments and complaints against judges and prosecutors. The Control Council was subordinate to the High Council for Judges and Prosecutors. It meets under the supervision of the chairman of the third department. With the law, the HSYK got a separate budget and its own building. The control council was subordinated to the HSYK and objections to decisions of the HSYK were made possible.

In addition to the minister and his state secretary, the council includes 11 judges and first degree prosecutors (they are elected at a plenary meeting of these lawyers), 3 members come from the Court of Cassation, 2 members from the State Council, 1 member from the Turkish Judicial Academy and 4 members are elected by the President out. European bodies welcomed the reform as a first step towards the separation of powers , but felt that it did not go far enough.

Recent developments

In February 2014, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law that changed a number of provisions in Law 6087 on the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors. It is numbered 6524 and contains 43 articles. The law also contains changes to Law 2802 on Judges and Public Prosecutors and Law 4954 on the Judicial Academy (Turkish: Türkiye Adalet Akademisi ).

The law should give the government greater leverage in appointing judges and prosecutors . The Minister of Justice should have the last word in future. Ten days after the law came into force, the Minister of Justice should appoint a new general secretary, his deputies, a chairman and deputy in the Control Council, new control judges and new members of the administrative staff. In the future, a distinction should be made between full members (asıl) and completing members (tamamlayıcı) , with the minister deciding which member is assigned which task. The 3rd department should have 11 members who are divided into two groups of 5 members each. The number of members in the 1st and 2nd divisions has been reduced to 5.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) lodged a constitutional complaint. The Constitutional Court dealt with 24 of the 43 articles and rejected the majority of the requests for the desired repeal of the provisions. The repealed articles primarily concerned the powers of the Minister of Justice. Most of the provisions of Temporary Article 4 dealing with dismissals and appointments after Act 6524 came into force have also been repealed. However, the decision of the Constitutional Court is not retroactive. The stipulation that 20 years of professional experience is required for an election to the HSYK has also been repealed.

With the constitutional reform of 2017, which came into force through a referendum on April 16, 2017, the council was deprived of the attribute "high", so that it is now only called Hakimler ve Savcılar Kurulu - judges and prosecutors. It only consists of 13 members, four of whom are directly appointed by the President of the Republic. The Minister of Justice and thus the Secretary of State can also be assigned to the sphere of the President, whereby from November 2019 the President can appoint and dismiss the ministers without the involvement of Parliament. A further seven members are elected by parliament - to this extent the president can exercise his influence as chairman of the - usually - largest parliamentary party. Critics see the principle of separation of powers abolished and the independence of the judiciary endangered.

Purge wave

As early as November 2015, the HSYK had initiated investigations against 5000 judges and public prosecutors who were supposed to belong to Fethullah Gülen's “parallel structure”. In March 2016, as part of these measures, 680 judges and prosecutors were put into temporary retirement as alleged Gülen sympathizers. In May 2016, the HSYK reiterated its determination to combat the membership of judges and prosecutors in what is perceived as the Cemaat (Gülen community). The day after the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 , five members of the HSYK were suspended from their membership. 2,745 judges and prosecutors were given temporary retirement. Five members of the Danıştay were also provisionally arrested. For all judges and public prosecutors, “membership in the parallel structure” was given as the reason for the measure. The measure affects 20 percent of the total number of judges and prosecutors in Turkey.

See also

literature

  • Christian Rumpf : Introduction to Turkish Law . CH Beck, 2nd edition Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-65766-5 , § 6, Rn. 120.
  • Burak Gümüş: The Turkish High Council for Judges and Prosecutors HSYK as a political instrument. In: Burcu Doğramacı, Kerem Öktem, Yavuz Köse and Tobias Völker (eds.): Turkey in the field of tension between collectivism and diversity. Young perspectives on Turkish research in Germany. Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 63–96.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d The information is mainly from the homepage (Turkish) of the HSYK on the history of the HSYK ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. taken. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hsyk.gov.tr
  2. ↑ see Art. 159, Paragraph 2, pp. 1, 2 of the Turkish Constitution .
  3. ↑ The Turkish wording of the law is u. a. on the pages of HSYK HÂKİMLER VE SAVCILAR YÜKSEK KURULU KANUNU ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. available; Accessed April 19, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hsyk.gov.tr
  4. ↑ The numbers are from a table on the page About the HSYK ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Turkish) taken. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hsyk.gov.tr
  5. ↑ See a report by Thomas Hammarberg , between 2006 and 2012 Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe , dated July 12, 2012 on freedom of expression and the media in Turkey. The report Freedom of expression and media freedom in Turkey was produced after a visit to Turkey from April 27-29, 2011. or a study by the Venice Commission on Law 6087: OPINION ON THE DRAFT LAW ON JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS OF TURKEY , Strasbourg, 29 March 2011, Opinion No. 610/2011, CDL-AD (2011) 004, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 86th Plenary Session (Venice, March 25-26, 2011)
  6. ↑ The BAZI KANUNLARDA DEĞİŞİKLİK YAPILMASINA DAİR KANUN (Law on Amendments to Some Laws was passed on February 15, 2014 and entered into force by publication in the Official Gazette on February 27, 2014.)
  7. ↑ The law in 2802 to judges and prosecutors ( Memento of the original April 13, 2014 Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Text in Turkish) was adopted on February 24, 1983 and published in the Official Journal on February 26, 1983. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hsyk.gov.tr
  8. ↑ The Law 4954 to the Justice Academy of Turkey (Text in Turkish) was adopted on 23 July 2003 and published on 31 July 2033 in the Official Journal.
  9. ↑ See Die Zeit of February 15, 2014: Turkish Parliament passes controversial judicial reform ; Accessed April 19, 2014
  10. ↑ Compare the daily newspaper Sabah of February 16, 2014 HSYK'ya yeni düzen (New order for the HSYK); Accessed April 19, 2014
  11. ↑ you the daily newspaper Radikal of January 9, 2014 13 soruda, HSYK'da neler değişecek? (13 questions about what's changing in HSYK); Accessed April 19, 2014
  12. ↑ See an article on this at Memurlar.Net from April 11, 2014 AYM, HSYK Kanununda neleri iptal etti? (What did the Constitutional Court overturn on the HSYK law?)
  13. ↑ See FAZ Constitutional Court overturns parts of judicial reform , Zeit Constitutional Court partially annulled Erdoğan's judicial reform or Süddeutsche Zeitung Constitutional Court overturned Erdoğan's judicial reform
  14. ↑ The Turkish wording of the constitutional court's decision was taken as 10 Nisan 2014 tarihinde Yapılan Mahkeme Toplantısında Görüşülen Dosya ve Sonucu ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Result of the court hearing on April 10, 2014) published. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anayasa.gov.tr
  15. ↑ See also Rumpf on the constitutional amendment 2017
  16. ↑ HSYK 5000 hakim ve savcı sınavını incelemeye aldı ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / zete.com
  17. ↑ 680 hâkim-savcı açığa alınıyor
  18. ↑ HSYK Hakimi Halil Koç'tan 'paralel hakim ve savcı' açıklaması
  19. ↑ HSYK, 2 am 745 hâkim ve savcıyı açığa aldı; 5 kişinin üyeliğini düşürdü!