New Regulations Introduced With The 8th Judicial Package 14 March 2024

Amendments To The Time Limits For Applying For Legal Remedies İn Criminal Proceedings
 

First of all, one of the most noteworthy changes introduced with the 8th Judicial Package is the amendments made to the deadlines for applying for legal remedies in the Criminal Law with Articles 18 and 19 of the Law. The deadlines for filing an appeal, which were previously regulated as "seven days from the announcement of the verdict" in Article 273 of the Criminal Procedure Code and "fifteen days from the announcement of the verdict" in Article 291 of the Criminal Procedure Code, have been changed to "two weeks from the date of notification of the verdict with its grounds". Thus, both the confusion arising from the different periods of appeal and cassation in practice has been eliminated and the practice of starting the legal remedy application period as of the announcement of the verdicts has been abandoned, and it is envisaged that the legal remedy application period will start with the notification of the reasoned verdicts, and in this way, the need for the practice that requires the application for appeal or cassation in an unjustified manner with the petition, which was previously called the request for a stay of time, where the justified reasons for appeal or cassation had to be notified separately together with the reasoned verdict, has been eliminated. The effective date of the regulation has been decided as 01.06.2024.
 

New Regulations on the Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict

Unlike the regulation on the Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict ("DAV"), which was previously annulled by the decision of the Constitutional Court ("CC")¹ published in the Official Gazette dated 01.08.2023, the Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict is not left to the acceptance and/or request of the defendant with the amendment made to Article 231 of the Criminal Procedure Code, taking into account the grounds of the Constitutional Court decision. With the new amendment, the court, acting ex officio, may decide to grant a Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict against the defendant if the conditions and circumstances are met, and the defendant may apply to the legal remedy of appeal against the decision within two weeks from the notification of the decision.  In the event that the Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict decision is rendered by the regional court of justice or the Court of Cassation in its capacity as the court of first instance, an appeal can also be filed.
 

In practice, in cases where a decision of acquittal or conviction should have been rendered from time to time, in case of an erroneous Deferment of the Announcement of the Verdict decision, the fact that only the legal remedy of appeal could be filed against the decisions would deprive people of their right to appeal and could lead to victimization. The new regulation aims to eliminate this victimization. The regulation will enter into force on the publication date of the Law.

Regulation on the Increase in Judicial Fine Amounts
 

The upper and lower limits foreseen for the one-day equivalent of the judicial fine determined in the second paragraph of Article 52 titled "Judicial Fine" of the TPC have been increased and the lower limit has been increased as 100 TL instead of 20 TL and the upper limit has been increased as 500 TL instead of 100 TL. The effective date of the regulation has been decided as 01.06.2024.
 

Regulations on Applying to the Compensation Commission for Trials Not Completed in Reasonable Time
 

It is legally possible for the parties to claim compensation for the non-pecuniary damages they have suffered in the event that the proceedings violate the right to be tried within a reasonable time. The requirement of exhaustion of all administrative and judicial remedies, which is a condition for applying to the Constitutional Court ("CC"), also applies to compensation for moral damages. However, since there is no administrative or judicial remedy for compensation of non-pecuniary damages, the procedure of applying directly to the Constitutional Court for compensation of damages has been changed by the amendment to create a new remedy. As part of the 8th Judicial Package, the Law No. 6384 on the Duties and Working Procedures and Principles of the Compensation Commission was amended to stipulate that claims for compensation for non-pecuniary damages related to long trial periods shall be submitted to the Compensation Commission under the Ministry of Justice within 1 month prior to trial. The application to the Commission will be made within one month during the investigation, prosecution or trial process or within one month from the date of learning that these have been concluded with a final decision at the latest. Those who cannot apply within the time limit due to a justified excuse will be able to apply within 15 days from the date the excuse is lifted and with evidence documenting their excuse.
 

The procedures and principles regarding the request for compensation due to protection measures will also be determined and the application to the commission can be made within 3 months from the notification of the finalization of the decisions or judgments to the relevant person and in any case within one year following the date of finalization of the decisions or judgments. According to the new regulation, inadmissibility decisions based on the grounds of non-exhaustion of domestic remedies for applications that have been dismissed by the Constitutional Court or directly filed with the European Court of Human Rights as of October 10, 2023 will be examined by the Commission upon application within 3 months from the date of notification.
 

Amendment To The Regulation On Committing Crimes On Behalf Of An Organization Without Being A Member Of The Organization:
 

Pursuant to the Constitutional Court Decision² published in the Official Gazette on 8 December 2023, it was decided to annul paragraph 6 of Article 220 of the TCC on the act of "committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of the organization" on the grounds that it was not specific and foreseeable in a way to prevent arbitrary practices of public authorities and did not meet the requirement of legality in this respect, and the said legal provision was renewed within the scope of the 8th Judicial Package, taking into account the grounds in the Constitutional Court decision. In the new provision, the act of "committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of the organization" has been regulated as a separate crime. Thus, it is envisaged that a person who commits a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of the organization can be punished separately for both the act subject to the crime and the act of committing the crime on behalf of the organization. Furthermore, the last sentence of the new provision stipulates that this provision will only apply to armed organizations. Finally, we would like to note that the effective date of the regulation has been set as the publication date of the Law.
 

Amendments to the Turkish Civil Code
 

With the 8th Judicial Package, new regulations have been introduced to amend Articles 407 and 471 of the Turkish Civil Code, which were annulled as unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court Decision³ published in the Official Gazette dated 23.06.2023, in line with the Constitutional Court decision. In this context, whereas the previous regulation provided for the restriction of any adult sentenced to a sentence of one year or more, the new regulation stipulates that an adult who is in a penal institution for the execution of a finalized prison sentence may be restricted or a trustee may be appointed only upon his/her own request. However, the new regulation stipulates that an adult person who is in a penal institution for the execution of a total of five years or more of finalized imprisonment may be restricted if deemed necessary for the protection of his personality or property, even if he does not request it. As in the previous regulation, the authority in charge of executing the sentence will be obliged to immediately notify the guardianship authority of the commencement of the execution of the prison sentence. In addition, unlike the previous regulation, the guardianship authority is obliged to listen to the convict before making a decision, and with the regulation stating that "The provisions of this Law regarding trusteeship shall also apply to this article to the extent appropriate to its nature.", reference is made to the provisions of the TCC regarding trusteeship to be applied if necessary.
 

In line with the Constitutional Court's decision, new provisions have been added to Article 471 of the TCC, which previously stated that the guardianship over a person who is restricted due to a conviction to a sentence binding on liberty will be terminated only upon the end of the imprisonment, and it is also regulated that the guardianship may be terminated if certain conditions occur during the continuation of the imprisonment. According to the new regulation, the guardianship over the person can be removed even if the imprisonment has not ended in the cases of "the person's request in terms of the restriction decisions made in connection with the execution of the imprisonment sentence of less than five years in total" and "the disappearance of the reason for the protection of personality or assets upon the request of the person in terms of the restriction decisions made in connection with the execution of the imprisonment sentence finalized for a total of five years or more".
 

Subparagraph 6 of paragraph 1 of Article 436 of the TCC, which regulates the procedure for restriction of liberty for protection purposes, has also been amended. While in the previous version of the regulation, there was no way of appeal against the placement decision, which was made with the preliminary report of a physician in order to ensure that an official medical board report could be obtained, that the person could be placed in health institutions for a maximum period of 20 days, the new regulation stipulates that the placement decision shall be immediately notified to the person concerned and his/her relatives, and the person concerned and his/her relatives have the right to appeal against this decision to the supervisory authority within ten days from the notification. The new regulation also stipulates that the supervisory authority must evaluate the objection urgently and that the objection will not immediately suspend the execution of the decision in order to prevent objections that are not in good faith.
 

Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law
 

With the 8th Judicial Package, with the sentence added to the 2nd paragraph of Article 19 of the EBL regarding the determination of the beginning and end of the periods specified in the law, "If the period is determined as a week, it ends on the day corresponding to the day it starts in the last week.", the confusion on the expiry date for the periods determined as a week has been eliminated and these periods have been clearly determined.
 

With the amendment made in the third paragraph of Article 309/p, which is in the provisions of the EBL on Restructuring, the legal remedy against the confirmation or rejection decision given in the confirmation hearing, which was previously determined only as the appeal remedy, has been changed and the legal remedy of appeal has been added to the legal provision. Accordingly, as of the date of entry into force of the new provision, following the confirmation or rejection decision, the debtor and the creditors who have filed an objection during the confirmation hearing will be able to first apply to the legal remedy of appeal within two weeks from the date of notification of the decision, and then appeal against the decision rendered upon the appeal examination within two weeks from the date of notification of the decision.
 

Furthermore, with the 8th Judicial Package, Article 364 of the EBL has been amended. Article 364 of the EBL has also been amended with the 8th Judicial Package, and the period of appeal against final decisions exceeding fifty-eight thousand eight hundred Turkish Liras in amount or value has been set as 2 weeks, and the reference to the old Code of Civil Procedure has been removed from the content of the article by referring to the provisions of the new Code of Civil Procedure in terms of the principles regarding the application for appeal and appellate review, thus ensuring uniformity between the appeal periods and the appeal periods, and updating the content of the article by removing the reference to the old law.
 

It is important to note that the effective date of all of the amendments to the EBL has been decided as 01.06.2024.

The full text of Law No. 7499 is available here⁴.

Our article on the amendments made to the Law No. 6698 on the Protection of Personal Data ("PPD") with the Law No. 7499 can also be found here⁵.

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1} Constitutional Court's decision numbered 2022/120, 2023/107 and dated 01.06.2023
² Constitutional Court's decision numbered 2023/132 2023/183 and dated 26.10.2023br
³ Constitutional Court decision dated 22.3.2023 and numbered 2022/105 , 2023/54
⁴ https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/ eskiler/ 2024/ 03/ 20240312-1.htm
⁵ https://www.egemenoglu.av.tr/tr/ haberler/ kvkkda - degisiklikler - resmi - gazetede - yayimlandi