Turkey’s Ministry of Justice Announced 2020 Judicial Statistics
Publication | Update:
Oct 2021
The Ministry of Justice has announced the "Judicial Statistics" for 2020. These statistics are produced from administrative records containing data from the prosecutors' offices, courts, and enforcement offices and collated to provide insights as to the trends in access to justice and the functioning of the judicial system. This article will give an overview of the key statistics and address important trends affecting the Turkish judiciary.[1]
i. Criminal Investigations
The majority of the criminal investigations conducted in 2020 resulted in non-prosecution decisions. Only 31.6 percent of criminal investigations led to a criminal trial while the charges were dropped in 56.1 percent of investigations. These statistics call for greater scrutiny by public prosecutors in initiating criminal investigations as most of the investigations appear to have been initiated without sufficient grounds, which may ultimately harm legal certainty.
With over 13 million individuals facing charges against them in 2020, there was no significant decrease in the number of suspects from the previous two years. Considering that Turkey’s entire population is 82 million, almost one in every six people appear to have been charged with a crime.[2] There seem to be two main reasons for this high number. First, there are over 8 million ongoing investigations with unidentified perpetrators, which exacerbate the issue. Second, due to the increasing workload of public prosecutors, there is a large backlog of investigations that keep passing on to following years.
ii. Applications Before the Court of Cassation
The number of cases brought to the Court of Cassation has decreased considerably in 2020. While the number of files at the Criminal Chambers and their General Assembly was around 700,000 - 800,000 in each year between 2013-2018, this number decreased to 449,700 in 2020.
The same trend was observed in the number of files before the Civil Chambers and their General Assembly. While the number of cases brought to the Civil Chambers was 725,664 in 2014, this number has decreased almost every year, falling to 264,001 in 2020.
This considerable decrease in Court of Cassation cases is the result of a major amendment that overhauled Turkey’s appellate review system in 2016. Following the amendment, Turkey introduced regional courts of appeal that now serve as the second-tier courts between instance courts and the Court of Cassation. Hence, fewer cases reaching the Court of Cassation.
Another reason for this decrease is that the 2016 amendment also introduced strict legislative requirements for a case to be appealed before the Court of Cassation. Consequently, it is of the utmost importance for regional courts of appeal to effectively conduct final appeal reviews and enable meaningful access to justice.
iii. Applications Before the Constitutional Court
Around 40,000 applications were lodged before the Constitutional Court in 2020, while over 42,000 pending applications were transferred from the previous year. The number of pending applications transferred to the next year has been on a steep upward trend since 2013. These statistics call for an increase in the Constitutional Court’s institutional capacity for timely and comprehensive handling of applications.
Claims of violations to the right to a fair trial formed the largest proportion of applications for the eighth year running, totaling 67 percent of all applications made in 2020; the highest rate since 2013.
As to Constitutional Court decisions, violation decisions on the prohibition of torture are of particular concern. While there were fewer than 25 cases in any given year between 2013-2018, this number jumped to more than one hundred in 2019 and to two hundred in 2020. Although these numbers are still low, the authorities must address the increasing trend as per the zero tolerance to torture policy.
Conclusion
Judicial statistics offer a rough overview of the functioning of the judicial system every year. One must be mindful that every number in these statistics relate to a person’s request for justice or the public’s call for maintaining rule of law. Such statistics rarely paint the full picture in a judicial system. Hence, readers should take the 2020 judicial statistics with a pinch of salt and use them as a preliminary resource in identifying the Turkish judicial system’s achievements and shortcomings.
[1] The publicly available statistics include the years between 2013 and 2020.
[2] Excluding foreigners.
This article was originally published here.
ICLG.com is a leading global platform for legal reference, analysis and news, hosting comprehensive comparative legal guides and research tools that cover law in more than 191 jurisdictions across 59 practice areas. ICLG.com also provides daily legal news and legal conference directories, as well as online purchasing of the renowned International Comparative Legal Guide series of print publications. https://iclg.com
Delivery Format:
HTML
Immediate Delivery
Access Rights | Content Availability: 
The content of this subscriber knowledge library area, the technology platform and tools are provided for information purposes only. No legal liability or other responsibility is accepted for any errors, omissions, or any loss, damage or inconvenience caused as a result of reliance on such information, or statements on this site, or any site to which these pages connect, since we cannot control the content or take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers. Where we provide links to sites, we do not by doing so endorse any information or opinions appearing in them. This courseware includes resources copyrighted and open educational resources (OER) by multiple individuals and organizations. If someone else is given access to your account login information, that person has read, understands and accepts the Conditions of Use for this platform.
Objectives and Study Scope
This study has assimilated knowledge and insight from business and subject-matter experts, and from a broad spectrum of market initiatives. Building on this research, the objectives of this market research report is to provide actionable intelligence on opportunities alongside the market size of various segments, as well as fact-based information on key factors influencing the market- growth drivers, industry-specific challenges and other critical issues in terms of detailed analysis and impact.
The report in its entirety provides a comprehensive overview of the current global condition, as well as notable opportunities and challenges.
The analysis reflects market size, latest trends, growth drivers, threats, opportunities, as well as key market segments. The study addresses market dynamics in several geographic segments along with market analysis for the current market environment and future scenario over the forecast period.
The report also segments the market into various categories based on the product, end user, application, type, and region.
The report also studies various growth drivers and restraints impacting the market, plus a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key players.
This analysis also examines the competitive landscape within each market. Market factors are assessed by examining barriers to entry and market opportunities. Strategies adopted by key players including recent developments, new product launches, merger and acquisitions, and other insightful updates are provided.
Research Process & Methodology
We leverage extensive primary research, our contact database, knowledge of companies and industry relationships, patent and academic journal searches, and Institutes and University associate links to frame a strong visibility in the markets and technologies we cover.
We draw on available data sources and methods to profile developments. We use computerised data mining methods and analytical techniques, including cluster and regression modelling, to identify patterns from publicly available online information on enterprise web sites.
Historical, qualitative and quantitative information is obtained principally from confidential and proprietary sources, professional network, annual reports, investor relationship presentations, and expert interviews, about key factors, such as recent trends in industry performance and identify factors underlying those trends - drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges influencing the growth of the market, for both, the supply and demand sides.
In addition to our own desk research, various secondary sources, such as Hoovers, Dun & Bradstreet, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Statista, are referred to identify key players in the industry, supply chain and market size, percentage shares, splits, and breakdowns into segments and subsegments with respect to individual growth trends, prospects, and contribution to the total market.
Research Portfolio Sources:
Global Business Reviews, Research Papers, Commentary & Strategy Reports
M&A and Risk Management | Regulation
The future outlook “forecast” is based on a set of statistical methods such as regression analysis, industry specific drivers as well as analyst evaluations, as well as analysis of the trends that influence economic outcomes and business decision making.
The Global Economic Model is covering the political environment, the macroeconomic environment, market opportunities, policy towards free enterprise and competition, policy towards foreign investment, foreign trade and exchange controls, taxes,
financing, the labour market and infrastructure.
We aim update our market forecast to include the latest market developments and trends.
Review of independent forecasts for the main macroeconomic variables by the following organizations provide a holistic overview of the range of alternative opinions:
As a result, the reported forecasts derive from different forecasters and may not represent the view of any one forecaster over the whole of the forecast period. These projections provide an indication of what is, in our view most likely to happen, not what it will definitely happen.
Short- and medium-term forecasts are based on a “demand-side” forecasting framework, under the assumption that supply adjusts to meet demand either directly through changes in output or through the depletion of inventories.
Long-term projections rely on a supply-side framework, in which output is determined by the availability of labour and capital equipment and the growth in productivity.
Long-term growth prospects, are impacted by factors including the workforce capabilities, the openness of the economy to trade, the legal framework, fiscal policy, the degree of government regulation.
Direct contribution to GDP
The method for calculating the direct contribution of an industry to GDP, is to measure its ‘gross value added’ (GVA); that is, to calculate the difference between the industry’s total pretax revenue and its total boughtin costs (costs excluding wages and salaries).
Forecasts of GDP growth: GDP = CN+IN+GS+NEX
GDP growth estimates take into account:
Market Quantification
All relevant markets are quantified utilizing revenue figures for the forecast period. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) within each segment is used to measure growth and to extrapolate data when figures are not publicly available.
Revenues
Our market segments reflect major categories and subcategories of the global market, followed by an analysis of statistical data covering national spending and international trade relations and patterns. Market values reflect revenues paid by the final customer / end user to vendors and service providers either directly or through distribution channels, excluding VAT. Local currencies are converted to USD using the yearly average exchange rates of local currencies to the USD for the respective year as provided by the IMF World Economic Outlook Database.
Industry Life Cycle Market Phase
Market phase is determined using factors in the Industry Life Cycle model. The adapted market phase definitions are as follows:
The Global Economic Model
The Global Economic Model brings together macroeconomic and sectoral forecasts for quantifying the key relationships.
The model is a hybrid statistical model that uses macroeconomic variables and inter-industry linkages to forecast sectoral output. The model is used to forecast not just output, but prices, wages, employment and investment. The principal variables driving the industry model are the components of final demand, which directly or indirectly determine the demand facing each industry. However, other macroeconomic assumptions — in particular exchange rates, as well as world commodity prices — also enter into the equation, as well as other industry specific factors that have been or are expected to impact.
Forecasts of GDP growth per capita based on these factors can then be combined with demographic projections to give forecasts for overall GDP growth.
Wherever possible, publicly available data from official sources are used for the latest available year. Qualitative indicators are normalised (on the basis of: Normalised x = (x - Min(x)) / (Max(x) - Min(x)) where Min(x) and Max(x) are, the lowest and highest values for any given indicator respectively) and then aggregated across categories to enable an overall comparison. The normalised value is then transformed into a positive number on a scale of 0 to 100. The weighting assigned to each indicator can be changed to reflect different assumptions about their relative importance.
The principal explanatory variable in each industry’s output equation is the Total Demand variable, encompassing exogenous macroeconomic assumptions, consumer spending and investment, and intermediate demand for goods and services by sectors of the economy for use as inputs in the production of their own goods and services.
Elasticities
Elasticity measures the response of one economic variable to a change in another economic variable, whether the good or service is demanded as an input into a final product or whether it is the final product, and provides insight into the proportional impact of different economic actions and policy decisions.
Demand elasticities measure the change in the quantity demanded of a particular good or service as a result of changes to other economic variables, such as its own price, the price of competing or complementary goods and services, income levels, taxes.
Demand elasticities can be influenced by several factors. Each of these factors, along with the specific characteristics of the product, will interact to determine its overall responsiveness of demand to changes in prices and incomes.
The individual characteristics of a good or service will have an impact, but there are also a number of general factors that will typically affect the sensitivity of demand, such as the availability of substitutes, whereby the elasticity is typically higher the greater the number of available substitutes, as consumers can easily switch between different products.
The degree of necessity. Luxury products and habit forming ones, typically have a higher elasticity.
Proportion of the budget consumed by the item. Products that consume a large portion of the
consumer’s budget tend to have greater elasticity.
Elasticities tend to be greater over the long run because consumers have more time to adjust their behaviour.
Finally, if the product or service is an input into a final product then the price elasticity will depend on the price elasticity of the final product, its cost share in the production costs, and the availability of substitutes for that good or service.
Prices
Prices are also forecast using an input-output framework. Input costs have two components; labour costs are driven by wages, while intermediate costs are computed as an input-output weighted aggregate of input sectors’ prices. Employment is a function of output and real sectoral wages, that are forecast as a function of whole economy growth in wages. Investment is forecast as a function of output and aggregate level business investment.
APU Content Aggregation Service