Turkish civil code () is one of the earliest laws in the history of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

within the scope of the Turkish Revolution.

Background

During the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, the legal system of Turkey was

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

like other Muslim countries. A committee headed by Ahmet Cevdet Pasha in 1877 compiled the rules of Sharia. Although this was an improvement, it still lacked modern concepts. Besides two different legal systems were adopted; one for the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

and the other for the non Muslim subjects of the empire. After the proclamation of Turkish Republic on 29 October 1923, Turkey began to adopt modern laws.

Preparation

The Turkish parliament formed a committee to compare the

civil code A civil code is a codification of private law relating to property law, property, family law, family, and law of obligations, obligations. A jurisdiction that has a civil code generally also has a code of civil procedure. In some jurisdiction ...

s of European countries. Austrian, German, French, and Swiss civil codes were examined. Finally on 25 December 1925 the commission decided on the

Swiss civil code The Swiss Civil Code (SR/RS 210, ; ; ; ) is a portion of the second part (SR/RS 2) of the internal Swiss law ("Private law - Administration of civil justice - Enforcement") that regulates the codified law ruling in Switzerland and relationshi ...

as a model for the Turkish civil code. The Turkish Civil Code was enacted on 17 February 1926. The

preamble A preamble () is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the su ...

to the Code was written by

Mahmut Esat Bozkurt Mahmut Esat Bozkurt (1892 – 21 December 1943) was a Turkish jurist, politician, government minister and academic. His birth name was Mahmut Esat. But after the adaptation of the Turkish Surname Law in 1934, he chose the surname ''Bozkurt'' ...

, the minister of justice in the 4th government of Turkey.

Women's rights

Although the code addressed many areas of modern life, the most important articles dealt with women’s rights. For the first time, women and men were acknowledged to be equal. Under the prior legal system, women’s share in inheritance and the weight of women’s testimony in court were half that of men. Under the code, men and women were made equal with regard to inheritance and testimony. Furthermore, civil marriage was made compulsory, and

polygamy Polygamy (from Late Greek , "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more tha ...

was banned. Women were given the right to choose any profession.Atatürk’s reforms page
/ref> Universal women's suffrage, however, was not established until 5 December 1934.

References

{{Civil codes by country, Asia 1926 in Turkey Civil codes Law of Turkey

Background

Preparation

Women's rights

See also

References