Research Assistant Erdi Şafak from the Faculty of Law made evaluations to the Union of Bars of Turkey magazine on how International Agreements were assessed with regard to constitutional law of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Date Added: 26 September 2017, 15:58
Last Updated Date:20 November 2020, 11:46
Research Assistant at the Faculty of Law of Near East University, Erdi Şafak, made evaluations regarding how international agreements were assessed and evaluated with regard to item 90 in the constitutional law of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the 132nd publication of Union of Bars of Turkey; pointing out the significance of the issue for Turkey.

According to the press release issued by the Directorate of Press and Public Relations of Near East University, Research Assistant Erdi Şafak provided information via the above mentioned publication regarding his study on judicial inspection of international agreements on the verdict given by the Constitutional Court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in conjunction with its significance for Turkey. It was pointed out that in this evaluation, a comparison of the constitutional laws of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was made; referencing that there were similarities between the two constitutional laws on the legislation and entering into force of agreements. However, he states that item 90 in both the constitutional laws, stating that international agreements are statutory and a case could not be opened on unconstitutionality, was interpreted differently in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and in Turkey.

He pointed out a significant issue with respect to the Turkish judicial system regarding a verdict of the Constitutional Court of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ...

He stated that the judicial inspection of the agreements has been a matter of discussion in Turkey for some time now. Furthermore, Şafak stressed that constitutional court had a different approach to the matter and stated that laws regarding agreements could only be inspected with regard to shape and that judicial inspection on content was not possible. Erdi Şafak particularly pointed out that the ratification of an international agreement prior to publication in the official journal in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could be preceded by a procedure, presenting the agreement to the constitutional court, whereas this was not a procedure available in the 1982 Constitutional Law of Turkey.

It is rather significant to discuss items against the Constitutional Law...

Erdi Şafak stated that this issue has been raised in the Turkish legislation system several times but that pre-inspection system has not been put into use. However, he emphasised that this was a significant procedure in use in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus asked for view from the constitutional court whether an international agreement was in line with the constitutional law, and the Constitutional Court evaluated the items in the agreement with regard to the items of the constitutional law of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Resultantly, an item in the agreement was found against the constitutional law; and thus the President sent the agreement back to the parliament. With the necessary changes made later, the agreement became valid. Having given the example above, Erdi Şafak stressed the importance of this issue as it was absent in the Turkish judicial system and pointed out that it was a necessity. Furthermore, he stated that the above mentioned procedure should be included into the jurisdiction and authority of the constitutional court within the current framework of the revision being considered since it was a rather significant matter.