January 2005
AGENDA OF TURKEY ON THE WAY TO EUROPE


Turkey took a new step by the date of negotiations given on Dec.17 2004 for being a full member of the European Community, beginning of negotiations on Oct.3 2005 ,will be proceeding on the way of becoming a part of Europe.
Particularly for the first three years men of law will have to work harder then before for the adaptation of European Community legislation. During the last three years, adaptation of the constitution and main laws had been completed.

As for the next three years of the adaptation process, secondary legislation will have been carried out.

The Ministry of Justice has already initiated the strives of the adaptation process. This process of negotiation will throughly change the judgement while the judgement could reach to a decisions within three to five years due to the overburden of cases and low salaries, will have been accelerated that way. As a result of getting more share from the General Budget and various funds being brought into action the information infrastructure operations and residence problem will have been quite solved.

On of the most problematic sections in the judgement are Administrative Courts. They are the resorts where the conflicts between the Public Institutions and citizens or companies dwelling in the country. The Tax Courts can be included in this group. The Administrative courts proved their efficiencies on the Government policies by revocating the privatisation of TUPRAS Company and similar decrees. In case the bankrupt banks are compensated by the state depending on the decrees given by the Administrative Court that will mean that the above mentioned affectivity will be going on.

Generally there mainly occur two kind of disputes between the governmental authorities and citizens companies. First because of the illegal decrees or dispositional transactions and second being affected due to the illegal actions or transaction of the government employees.

If the decrees of governmental institutions are illegal then these decrees are claimed to be revocated by suing against them applying to Administrative Courts. A decree by the municipality concerning restorations or buildings, or custom authorities’ decrees about the commodities in the custom stores or appointment of a civil servant to an another place or refusal of an applications about permissions of license are included into such kind of them.

If you don’t sue against these decrees within sixty days, you can’t obtain your rights. As for the illegal decrees concerning Tax Law, it is thirty days.

Public Institution may sometimes cause material damages by prohibiting the instruction of a building or closing a mining on the pretext of being harmful to the environment or not giving a permission a certain merchandise in custom’s stores to be actually imported into the country etc. For these kind of damages you have the right to apply the Public Authorities demanding the sum of your damages and according to their response, you may again apply to Administrative Courts. In case there’s a lapse of time then your case is dismissed.

Public Institutions may cause damages by some actions such as insufficiency of irrigation channels or flood happening to a factory because of the negligence of necessary steps against it or an assigned person to be prohibited from going abroad. In all these situations the same deadlines are valid.

As to the Administrative and Tax Courts in our country since they are established in great cities as İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and so on ,the first legal requisite is to determine where your legal authoratative region or other regulating transactions, Danıştay (Council of State) in Ankara is your resort.

The most important problem from the point of Administrative Courts is the delay of respites to be given months later despite their urgency. Whereas in commercial courts to be given within a comperatively short time that is not more than a fortnight might prevent increasing the amount of damages. As for the Administrative and Tax Courts it might take years for the final resolution. It generally takes at least two years for the result of appeal to Danıştay.

It is a pity that among the members in these courts are some persons selected the other fields than law. Whereas those who are educated and trained in the Faculties of Law generally have the sense and logic of justice more than the above mentioned persons. Besides people might feel that in such courts justice hasn’t been properly brought about.

These are the main problems to be handled in the forthcoming days. By the way ,a new resort being established as 13th Division in Danıştay, some of the important cases concerning Privatisations, Radio and Television Supreme Court or other supreme courts and capital marketing will be handled.

Our sincere opinion is that ,it being a new court its decisions will be quicker than their precedents.

The new regulations about the encouragement of investment and five points of tax rate decrease caused common approval. We are hopeful that these regulations will accelerate the new investments.

Finally in January, Turkey has already left an important stage behind and turned its face totally towards west. This new trend will cause Turkey being an European country with its economy and Law Order instead of a Middle East one.