State immunity in Turkish Law: An analysis of the doctrine of state immunity in the light of the decisions of the Turkish court of cassation

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2012

Öğrenci: İDİL BUSE KÖK

Danışman: NECATİ POLAT

Özet:

State immunity is a doctrine of international law, regulating a cluster of exceptions to the legal authority of the territorial state. According to the doctrine; acts, possessions and heads of a foreign state are not subject to the domestic justice system in an individual state. Traditionally, the doctrine builds on the concept of sovereignty, which is the regulating principle of the international normative order: since all sovereigns are equal, a sovereign cannot possibly be called to account before the authority of another sovereign. The inviolability of foreign state acts in this form is often referred to as “absolute immunity.” In time the doctrine has been transformed into a more “restrictive” form, which leaves out commercial or private-law transactions of states (iure gestionis), granting immunity to the acts of foreign states in terms of sovereign or political acts only (iure imperii). This study traces the transformation of the doctrine in the Turkish law from absolute to restrictive immunity through an examination of a number of relevant verdicts made by the Turkish Court of Cassation with a view to provide an account of the doctrine as understood in Turkey presently.