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Turkish Constitutional Court and Judicial Resistance: Instances of Defiance Under Pressure

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 15. Dezember 2025
Global Jurist
Aus der Zeitschrift Global Jurist Band 25 Heft 2

Abstract

This article explores on-bench judicial resistance within an electoral autocracy by analyzing the Turkish Constitutional Court’s struggle to protect opposition parliamentarians. It aims to present a nuanced analysis of the Turkish Constitutional Court case law under pressure, examining its role in confronting the regime. The cases discussed involve Kadri Enis Berberoğlu, Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, and Can Atalay, who were prominent public figures before their political mandates due to their roles in civil society resistance as a journalist, a medical doctor, and a lawyer. The article investigates how, to what extent, and under what conditions the Court has legally mobilized to defend the political opposition in notable cases involving Berberoğlu, Gergerlioğlu, and Atalay. It also highlights the conflict between the Court and the criminal judiciary, as well as the interplay between autocratic and democratic partnerships in a non-democratic context.

Keywords: Turkish constitutional court; judicial resistance; democratic resilience; constitutional courts; autocratization
Corresponding author: Bertil Emrah Oder, Department of Constitutional Law, Koç Universitesi, Istanbul, Türkiye, E-mail:
Professor of Constitutional Law, Koç University College of Law. I thank Gábor Halmai, Max Steuer, and Ágnes Kovács for their critical insights on prior drafts. I am especially indebted to Yiğit Acar and Deniz Özen, attorneys at law from the Istanbul Bar Association, for their assistance and professional insights in understanding the legal complexities of the case law. I thank Begüm Gürcüoğlu for her essential research support. This paper was also presented at The Global Summit of Constitutionalism 2025, for which I gratefully acknowledge the submissions, suggestions, and comments of all panel participants, particularly Tracy Lightcap, Mark Graber, Max Steuer, and Ori Aronson.
Received: 2024-12-24
Accepted: 2025-07-08
Published Online: 2025-12-15

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Foreword
  3. Constitutional Resilience and the Role of Courts
  4. Research Articles
  5. EU Values Through Constitutional Lenses: Assessing the Resilience of the Romanian Constitutional Court
  6. Benin: A Strong Court Falling Victim to Its Achilles’ Heel
  7. Constitutional Chess? Strategic Considerations in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s Constitutional Amendment Jurisprudence
  8. (Dis)empowerment and Constitutional Court Resilience: A Conceptual Framework and Explorative Evidence from the Slovak Constitutional Court
  9. Designed to Fail? How the Polish Constitutional Tribunal Became a Political Pawn
  10. The Hungarian Constitutional Court: From a Target to an Agent of Autocratization
  11. Turkish Constitutional Court and Judicial Resistance: Instances of Defiance Under Pressure
  12. A Tale of Two Citadels: Constitutional Court Resilience Against Creeping Autocratisation in India and South Africa
  13. Effective Remedies and Reinforcing Procedural Guarantees of Constitutionalism in Europe
  14. The Resilience of Constitutional Courts and Their Resistance to Autocratization: Beyond Binaries, Where Time Matters
https://doi.org/10.1515/gj-2024-0097
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
Turkish constitutional court; judicial resistance; democratic resilience; constitutional courts; autocratization

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Foreword
  3. Constitutional Resilience and the Role of Courts
  4. Research Articles
  5. EU Values Through Constitutional Lenses: Assessing the Resilience of the Romanian Constitutional Court
  6. Benin: A Strong Court Falling Victim to Its Achilles’ Heel
  7. Constitutional Chess? Strategic Considerations in the Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s Constitutional Amendment Jurisprudence
  8. (Dis)empowerment and Constitutional Court Resilience: A Conceptual Framework and Explorative Evidence from the Slovak Constitutional Court
  9. Designed to Fail? How the Polish Constitutional Tribunal Became a Political Pawn
  10. The Hungarian Constitutional Court: From a Target to an Agent of Autocratization
  11. Turkish Constitutional Court and Judicial Resistance: Instances of Defiance Under Pressure
  12. A Tale of Two Citadels: Constitutional Court Resilience Against Creeping Autocratisation in India and South Africa
  13. Effective Remedies and Reinforcing Procedural Guarantees of Constitutionalism in Europe
  14. The Resilience of Constitutional Courts and Their Resistance to Autocratization: Beyond Binaries, Where Time Matters
Heruntergeladen am 9.5.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/gj-2024-0097/html?lang=de
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