Abstract:

The Turkish Court of Cassation began functioning on July 20, 2016. With this legal step, the Turkish Criminal Procedures (TCP) system transformed into a three-tier criminal justice system. First- and second-degree criminal procedures involve two aspects of judicial review: point of law and point of proof. However, the scope of judicial review of Turkish Court of Cassation includes only reviews points of law. The Court of Cassation only rules on the issue of point of law in material cases. The rules pertaining to the obligations for reason submittal and ultra petita have been adopted with regard to remedying legal appeals in the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code (TCPC). Therefore, the appeal must be made in a way that includes the whole reasons and also appellant can submit an additional petition which includes reasons of appeal. Although an application may be accepted as a request of appeal without showing a certain reason for the request, it cannot be accepted strictly as an appeal application. Therefore, the recent practices of the Court of Cassation have not been within the letter of the law. This study provides a detailed discussion of the characteristics of an appeal request, their importance in terms of the freedom of access to justice and the right to a fair trial, the obligation to indication the reasons for appeal in the appellate brief, the deadline for indicating reasons, and the legal results related to neglecting these requirements in line with theory and practice.

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