Law of Torts

Dear Forum Members,
Firstly, I apologise for any of my naive comments and questions as I'm not
a lawyer. But I need to ask a few questions as I work as a translator
overseas.
My first question, although very general,is about the law of torts of
Turkey. "Tresspass to the person" . When does it become a criminal act
(hence referred to High Court) and when is it considered a civil act hence
stays with the District court? As for the previous conviction of the
defendant, how much consideration is given? What are the charges and
punitive damages?
Secondly, I realise that's a lot of questions and may not be possible to
answer with a few lines. Therefore, what would be an authoritive text
book on Torts?
Again I apologise for such a general question but I believe a forum on Turk
Hukuk Sitesi is a good place to start asking legal questions.

Hello,

Although Turkish Law System is deeply distinguished from the legal system
your message has depended (I guess English system that is) in many
aspects and especially in regard of Legal Procedures and Law Terms, I will
try to explain as much as I can and I hope this explanations wont be
blurred.

First of all Turkish Legal System does not have a "Law of Torts" and even
we can even say we dont have the exact translation or term for "tort".
(Indeed this was what I was trying to say on the above paragraph)

Turkey has a "Criminal Act" which has some special arrangements that are
considered as crime for some actions described in the act. We can
generally say, these crimes all depend and require "criminal intention" so
as a general word we can say, it will be a matter of criminal case when
the offender intented the action. (There are some exceptions: For
instance reckless behaviors of professionals even without intent factor
also involve Criminal Act to be in charge).

However whenever an intention does not exist in the action (with the
exceptions I have just mentioned above), Criminal law wont be interested
in the action and the case will be in charge of civil act thus civil courts.

When it is a matter of Civil Act, action will not require any punishment but
only compensation will be decreed by the court. But whenever Criminal
Act handles the dispute both compensation and punitive actions (such as
prison sentence) may and will be practised.

It is not easy to illustrate any punisment for the action. Every crime will
require its own punishment that is written in the act but we can generally
say it will require a jail punisment upto 15 years depending of the
importance and result of the crime.

And unfortunately for the same reason it is not easy to recommend a text
book. But to make things easier these terms in Turkish will be quite close
or directly linked to "tort" of English Law system: "müessir fiil", "meslek ve
sanatta acemilik suçları", "haksız fiil" and the issue is handled between the
456-460th section of Criminal Law.

Regards,

Hi B.Y.
I think "Introduction to Turkish Law" of "Tuğrul Ansay and Don Wallace Jr"
may of be some use. Here is the address you can ask for delivery: "Kluwer
Law and Taxation Publishers 101 Philip Drive Norwell, MA 92961 USA"

Let me say that Turkish Law of Obligations basically regulates general
torts apart from some other certain acts.