Abstract:

The main purpose of the functioning of the law is to provide justice. And justice is the basis of the State. It is unimaginable for a State to survive without justice, similar to a baseless building which is condemned to be ruined. If the trust of justice in a society is weakened, the confidence of citizens in the state is also reduced. In order to reach the ideal of “just”, judicial decisions must be fair and impartial as well as within the rule of law. For this reason, throughout history, the role of executives of law has been important as the rules of law in all legal systems and societies. In order to reach justice, it is unquestionable that judges who decide on disputes should be independent and impartial. As a matter of fact, with the constitutional referendum of 16 April 2017, Article 9 of the Constitution was added to the provision of impartiality so that the issue of independence and impartiality has been settled on a constitutional basis. However, in this study, we focus on only the element of impartiality, and not on the element of independence. In this sense, the meaning is given to the concept of judge’s impartiality in the Ottoman Empire and contemporary Turkish law, and the legal arrangements (injunctions/measures) and ethical principles foreseen to ensure impartiality are emphasized

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