Fundamentals of Law

Week: 3

Av. Çağlar ALTUN

Tel: 0 532 781 82 18
Mail: ancyra-law@yandex.com
Web: www.ancyralaw.com

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 Sources of Law

 The first source of law is the written set of laws, rules or

regulations and the judicial decisions.

 If there is no written law, customary law and the

writings of eminent legal scholars become the sources
of law.

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 Sources of Law
 The sources of Turkish Law are as follows:
- The constitution
- Statutes
- International Treaties
- Presidential Decrees
- By-laws
- Judicial decisions

International treaties duly put into effect are of equal status to statutes. In cases
where the provisions of a treaty relating to fundamental rights and freedoms are in
conflict with domestic law, the international treaty will take precedence.

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 Sources of Law

 With the constitutional amendments which had

been approved by the referendum of 16 April 2017 and
came into effect on 9 July 2018, the
constitutional/political position of the President of
Republic changed from a relatively passive nature to a
position where he is vested with the executive power
and in addition can avail himself of a considerable
portion of the legislative power.

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 Sources of Law

 The executive power is vested in the President who

has the power to issue «Presidential decrees» which
have equal rank with the laws(statutes) passed by the
parliament .
 In the fields of fundamental rights and freedoms
specified in the Constitution, President does not have
the power to issue decrees
 In the instances where a presidential decree is in
conflict with a provision of law, the law will apply.

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 Sources of Law

 The presidential decrees issued under normal

circumstances are not required to be submitted to the
Parliament.
 The presidential decrees issued under emergencies are
to be submitted to the Parliament for approval.
 The presidential decrees promulgated during the time
of public emergencies are exempted from the judicial
review of the Constitutional Court.

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 Sources of Law

 In Turkish law, customary rules are of complementary

nature.
 If there is no written law applicable to the case, the
judge may recourse to customary law.
 This provision indicates the superiority of written law
over the customary rules.

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 Thanks……

Av. Çağlar ALTUN

Tel: 0 532 781 82 18
Mail: ancyra-law@yandex.com
Web: www.ancyralaw.com

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