Abstract:

Adultery, which refers to nonmarital sexual intercourse by one of the spouses while the marriage is in progress, is regulated in the Turkish Civil Code as an absolute ground for divorce based on fault (TCC 161). According to TCC 174/II, “The party whose personal rights have been attacked due to the events leading to the divorce may re-quest the payment of an appropriate amount of money as moral com-pensation from the other defective party”. The act of adultery is ac-cepted as an attack on personal rights in judicial decisions and doc-trine. Therefore, the spouse whose personal rights have been attacked due to the act of adultery may demand non-pecuniary damages from the adulterer. However, the deceived spouse cannot claim non-pecuniary damages from the third party of the adultery according to the Judgment of General Assembly on the Unification of Judgments of the Turkish Supreme Court dated 06.07.2018 (Docket No. 2017/5, Decision No. 2018/7). In this study, some problematic issues regard-ing the non-pecuniary damages claimed due to adultery are discussed in the light of the Supreme Court judgments.

Keywords: