The second international symposium on “Reasoned Judgments in High Courts of Appeal” was held online on 9 April 2021 with a view to exchanging international knowledge and experience on the work of the highest instance supreme courts. The event focused on the quality of judgments, importance of reasoning and judgment writing procedures.

The symposium started with the opening remarks of Mr Mehmet AKARCA, First President of the Court of Cassation of Turkey and Mr Cristian URSE, Head of the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara and continued with two sessions moderated by Mr Osman ATALAY, Chair of the Human Rights Commission and President of the 1st Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation and by Assoc. Prof. Saadet YÜKSEL, Turkish Judge from the European Court of Human Rights.

The symposium was attended by more than eighty participants, including presidents of chambers, bench members, rapporteur judges and public prosecutors of the Court of Cassation. Speakers included Mr Hikmet KANIK, Chair of the Editorial Board and Classification Board and Bench Member of the Court of Cassation; Mr Levent AKÇAOĞLU, Lawyer from the European Court of Human Rights; Mr Paul MC DERMOTT, Bench Member of the High Court of Justice in Ireland; Hon. Maureen O’CONNOR, Chief Justice of Ohio Supreme Court; Mr Jeffrey A. APPERSON, Vice President and Mr Michael BUENGER, Executive Vice President of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC); Prof. Paul ROBERTS from the Nottingham University Law School and Mr Hasan BAKIRCI, Deputy Section Registrar from the European Court of Human Rights.

The event was organised within the European Union-Council of Europe Joint Project on “Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of Court of Cassation”.