Judicial Reform Strategy Paper and Independence of Defence

In this article, the Judicial Reform Strategy Paper published by the government in the process of harmonization with the legislation of the European Union, is being discussed in terms of independence of defence. Primarily, the emphasis is made on the issue that the Turkish judges and prosecutors, bureaucrats and governments are always suspicious on the concept of “judicial independence”. The attention is taken to the issue that, High jurisdictional authorities, including Constitutional Court, do not consider the independence of defence as the fundamental principle of judicial independence and several consequences of “state-centric" view of the jurisdictional authorities are pointed. It points that even terms used under the Judicial Reform Strategy Document prepared by the government are problematic and the lawyers have not been considered still as "members of the judiciary”. Several shortcomings have been identified: i) the general expressions for the legal profession are important, but not enough, ii) statements about the Turkish Bar Association are important, but not sufficient, iii) no single line on the Attorneyship Law is included, iv) no single line on the Bar Association is included, v) the target is not sincere about compulsory defence, vi) no comprehensive overview of legal aid. (A enhanced version of the declaration presented in the second session of the “Symposium on Independence of Judiciary” organized by Progressive Lawyers Group (ÇAG) in 23.1.2010.)