Within the scope of the Joint Project on “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of Court of Cassation”, the Presentation Workshop on “The International Legal Framework for Courts of Appeal” was held on 6 December 2021 with international participation, in hybrid format, on the premises of the Presidency of the Court of Cassation. The Experts Group Meeting on the same subject was held on 7 December 2021.
In his opening remarks, Mehmet Akarca, President of the Court of Cassation highlighted that exchanging knowledge and experience with judges and legal professionals representing different legal systems and judicial traditions had contributed significantly to the recent reforms. He also added that the duty of courts of appeal was not limited to examining the legality of the decisions delivered, but also such duties as preventing unnecessary cases or applications for appeal, increasing the judicial quality, and increasing the public’s trust in the judiciary by ensuring legal security and foreseeability. In his opening remarks, Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara provided information about the Council of Europe and stated that the Council of Europe had developed close cooperation with the Court of Cassation over the years in various projects but that this was the first project being implemented with the Court as the main beneficiary and thanked the Court of Cassation for the cooperation in the Project.
Approximately 130 participants, including presidents of chambers, bench members, rapporteur judges and public prosecutors of the Turkish Court of Cassation, attended the workshop. The sessions were moderated respectively by Adem Albayrak, First Vice President and Head of the General Assembly of Civil Chambers of the Court of Cassation, Eyup Yeşil, First Vice President and Head of the General Assembly of Criminal Chambers of the Court of Cassation and Prof. Bahri Öztürk, Dean of the Faculty of Law at İstanbul Kültür University. Speakers who contributed to these sessions with their presentations included Fevzi Yıldırım, Secretary General of the Court of Cassation, Nina Betetto, President of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) and Judge at Slovenian Supreme Court, Prof. Paul Roberts, Professor of Criminal Jurisprudence at Nottingham University Law School, David Campbell, Senior United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, Dr Martin Manzel, Lawyer and Mediator, and Prof. Feridun Yenisey, Faculty Member at Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Law.
The Experts Group Meeting was held in two sessions and chaired by Akarca. The ten headings created in line with the Principles of Excellence for Courts of Appeal were elaborated on during the meeting by assessing the experience of the Presidency of the Court of Cassation as well as country experience of the participants, good practices in comparative law and international standards.
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.
