Hacettepe University’s “Professional Deontology in Law” students visited the Court of Cassation within the scope of “The Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct Law Clinic”

Accepted unanimously on 08.12.2017 by Plenary Assembly of the Court of Cassation convened under the patronage of the First President of the Court of Cassation, İsmail Rüştü CİRİT, the Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct and Code of Conduct for Public Prosecutors of the Court of Cassation that was adopted on October 19, 2017 under the patronage of The Chief Public Prosecutor Mehmet AKARCA and “Code of Conduct for Staff of the Court of Cassation”, which was adopted the same day has been included in the course plan of “Professional Deontology in Law” as source texts.

The trainings for the students who will become ethical facilitators within the scope of “The Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct Law Clinic” continue. As a result of the studies, a part of the training program regarding the “ethical facilitator” group of 20 students, planned to train about 200 students, was held in the Court of Cassation. Within the context of the training held in the Court of Cassation on April 8, 2018; the history of the Court of Cassation and its role in Turkish law, the Judicial Code of Conduct, Bangalore Principles on Judicial Conduct and written ethical principles in the Ottoman Empire’s kadi system (muslim judge) and Mecelle (the civil code of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) were also provided. “Ethical facilitators” will train other law students on the Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct for a total of 16 hours for two days as of 28 April 2018. The trainings will be attended and supported by the experted bench members of the Court of Cassation, rapporteur judges, public prosecutors and court staff.

The activities of the “The Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct Law Clinic”, that is planned as a provision of the high courts’ instructive role, are of great importance in terms of Istanbul Declaration on Transparency in the Judicial Process and the draft implementation measures developed on 20 October 2017 at the working group meeting attended by 5 international scholars. In Article 9 of the implementation measures, attention is drawn on to the importance of the support provided by courts to well-structured education programs and to that increasing and consolidating the rule of law and and respect for the duty of judiciary depends on understanding the legal principles and individual rights throughout generations . In this context, it is aimed that the activities of “The Court of Cassation Judicial Code of Conduct Law Clinic” will be a model for cooperation studies with other faculties of law.