Abstract:

This study analyses the realm of law that military coups both create and rely upon, as well as the ways they are established, manufactured, and employed in daily life. It will attempt to understand the legality of the September 12 period of military rule not as part of a democratic process with a violation of human rights, but rather as the normalization of the field of extra-ordinary legality implemented during this ‘state of exception.’ Through an in-depth analysis of the autobiographies of jurists who lived through this era the following questions shall be considered: How did the legality of the September 12 regime work? What were the methods by which this approach to law was carried out on a day-to-day basis, and how were they resisted?  On what practices and concepts were the continuities and connections between the legal state of exception and ordinary legal states based? Within this framework, this essay’s first section will discuss the means of resistance to the coup described in the jurists’ autobiographies, while the second will examine the ways in which some remained passive observers to the legality of the coup era. Through discussing these two points together, the aim is to question the differences between the two and better understand the ideas and practices shared by those who resist and those who observe passively. Through such an investigation, we seek to illuminate the historical continuities of the legal state of exception in Turkey.

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