The “Gaziantep Regional Case Law Forum” was held on 16-17 June 2022 in Gaziantep under the Joint Project on “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of Court of Cassation”. First President Mehmet Akarca, First Vice Presidents Eyup Yeşil and Adem Albayrak, Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Rıdvan Gündoğdu, chamber presidents, bench members, rapporteur judges and public prosecutors of the Court of Cassation, judges from Adana, Diyarbakır and Gaziantep regional courts of appeal and first instance courts as well as national experts attended the two-day event where group works and plenary sessions were held.
In his opening remarks, Mehmet Akarca, President of the Court of Cassation, indicated that since the Court of Cassation is a case law establishing court, it should implement effective and multifaceted strategies within the framework of its educative role and leadership and also noted that the regional case law fora organised in Ankara, Istanbul and Antalya enabled the Court to evaluate the judicial system from a holistic perspective. Highlighting the importance of the works carried out and the methods developed, Mr Akarca expressed that the evaluation, implementation, and monitoring process would start after the Gaziantep Regional Case Law Forum and the mentioned evaluation step would be addressed at the National Case Law Forum to be held in Ankara the following week. Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara, highlighted the importance of the Court of Cassation with his following remarks: “Case law consistency is a fundamental matter for ensuring legal certainty, as one of the basic principles of the rule of law and contributes to a great deal to public confidence in courts” and drew attention to the link between the consistency of domestic case law and the individual’s right to a fair trial as enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Dr Mustafa Saldırım, Deputy Secretary General of the Court of Cassation, made a presentation on “The Road Map for the Improvement of Case Law Unity and Evaluation of Key Findings” following the opening remarks.
The sessions were moderated by Eyup Yeşil, First Vice President and Head of the General Assembly of Criminal Chambers, and Adem Albayrak, First Vice President and Head of the General Assembly of Civil Chambers of the Court of Cassation. Speakers who contributed to these sessions with their presentations included Ziya Torun, President of the 14th Criminal Chamber and Gülnihşah Çokdinç, President of the 5th Civil Chamber of the Gaziantep Regional Court of Appeal, Ali Bozkaya, Lawyer from the European Court of Human Rights, and Assoc. Prof. Ali Ersoy Kontacı, Council of Europe Consultant and Faculty Member at the Faculty of Law of Ankara University.
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.
