FEA 102 Principles of Law

Week 9 – Private Law II

Instructor Niyper Hayal Artaç
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2) Commercial Law

 The peculiarities of commercial life render some rules of civil law (including law of obligations) insufficient for the regulation of commercial
transactions, creating a need for special rules. For example, the rules of the Civil Code applicable to associations in general do not apply to various
types of business associations because, in contrast to associations, which are created for humanitarian, cultural or charitable purposes, business
associations are formed for profit making.

 Commercial law is the body of rules applicable to commercial relations and organizations. All of the transactions and acts
pertaining to a commercial enterprise are “commercial affairs”.
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A) Commercial Partnerships

 Commercial partnerships (business associations, companies) play a vital role in economic relations. Individuals come together to create
partnerships of various types.

 These are;

a) General Partnership

b) Limited (Commandité) Partnership

c) Joint Stock Company

d) Partnership with Limited Liability

e) Co-operative Partnerships
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B) Negotiable Instruments

 Another important subject of commercial law is valuable documents which are called negotiable instruments. These are extensively used in
commercial transaction and circulated somewhat like money. For example, corporate share certificates, bills of lading and cheques are examples of
negotiable instruments. They are documents representing money which can be freely traded and exchanged like money.
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3) Private International Law

 Private international law is that branch of law which specifically deals with the conflict of laws problem amongst states. The
aim of private international law is not to resolve the substantive problem but to provide a framework of legal rules to
determine which state’s law applies to a legal dispute.
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A) Conflict of Laws

 The problem of determining which state’s law will apply to a legal dispute involves two steps. First, the determination of which state’s court
will have jurisdiction to decide the case; second, which state’s substantive law will be applied to the legal problem.

 It is the task of private international law (conflict of laws) rules to choose the applicable law in concrete cases. National courts are governed by
their own conflict of laws rules in determining the applicable law in cases brought before them. It should be noted that the conflict of law rules of
a country may indicate that in a particular case the applicable law is another country’s law.
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B) Law of Nationality

 Closely related to the area of conflict of laws is the law of nationality. In private international law, the resolution of a legal dispute often will
require that the nationality of the interested parties be first determined. The determination of a person’s nationality may be problematic at times,
as, for example, where a person possesses more than one nationality (double or multiple nationality), or where they have none, i.e. are stateless.

 Transfer of territory between states, annexation or partition may affect nationality status of the people living in those territories.

 Citizenship can be acquired either by blood relations (jus sanguinis), that is through parentage, or by being born in a certain country (jus soli), or by
being conferred with citizenship upon a formal application (naturalization). Israel grants citizenship to those who are Jewish.
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B) Law of Nationality

 As for the problem of dual-nationality, some states are categorically opposed to the concept of dual-nationality, For
example the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba (2003) provides that “Dual citizenship is not recognized. Therefore, when a foreign citizenship is
acquired, the Cuban one will be lost”.

 However, legal systems of some other States have more or less permissive regulations relating to the problem of dual-
nationality. Generally speaking, the Turkish practice has a permissive attitude towards dual-nationality.
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C) Law of Aliens

 Law of Aliens regulates the rights accorded by a state to persons not having the nationality of that state. For example, in Turkey various legal rules
regulate the ability of non-Turkish nationals to work, own property, make investments or engage in other activities. Traditionally, political rights
have been denied to aliens.

III) Branches of Law Where Public and Private Characteristics Are Mixed

 In some branches of law, as a result of certain historical developments, elements of both private law and public law are present. For example,
copyright law, or intellectual property law is branch where both public and private elements coverage. Labour law perhaps is the best example
of the branches where public and private law elements are intermingled.

Labour Law

 The relationship between the employer and employee, in many cases, is not only a matter of private law but, because of
the Government’s involvement in the determination of these relationships, also concerns public law.