“Ankara Regional Case Law Forum” was held on 31 March and 1 April 2022 in the İsmail Rüştü Cirit Conference Hall and training halls of the Court of Cassation under the Joint Project on “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of Court of Cassation”. The consistent application of the Court of Cassation’s judgments by first instance courts and regional courts of appeal in accordance with the educative role and leadership of the Court of Cassation and resolution of cases without delay were discussed in the forum.
In his opening remarks, Mehmet Akarca, President of the Court of Cassation, stated that the most important duty of the Court of Cassation and its greatest responsibility towards the society is to ensure case law unity with a view to guaranteeing legal security, equality before the law and legal foreseeability. In his remarks, Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, emphasised that participants from the regions, the members of the Court of Cassation and a team of consultants would be brought together to discuss systematic problems as they relate specifically to the effectiveness and efficiency of the Court of Cassation and regional courts of appeal, practices in other European countries, the implementation of European human rights standards and the European Court’s judgments in these fora to be organised in Ankara, Istanbul, Gaziantep and Antalya, respectively. Fevzi Yıldırım, Secretary General of the Court of Cassation, made a presentation on the “Purpose and Expected Results of Case Law Fora Within the Scope of the Project” following the opening remarks.
The session was moderated by Hikmet Kanık, Chair of the Publications Board and Member of the 3rd Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Speakers who contributed to the session with their presentations included Dr Mustafa Saldırım, Deputy Secretary General of the Court of Cassation, Tülin Kurtoğlu, President of the 4th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Appeal, Yeşim Garipoğlu Özen, President of the 6th Criminal Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Appeal and Assoc. Prof. Ali Ersoy Kontacı, Council of Europe Consultant and Faculty Member at the Faculty of Law of Ankara University.
In the forum where group work and plenary sessions were held for two days, opinions were exchanged on recommendations for increasing the quality of judgments and ensuring case law consistency.
The Joint Project on “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of Court of Cassation” is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and the Court of Cassation of Turkey is the end beneficiary of the Project.
