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The Constitutional Court Has Not Annulled the Provision
Pertaining to the Obligation to Recruit an Attorney at
Law for Joint Stock Companies
*
Att. Naciye Yilmaz
The Constitutional Court has rejected the application with regard
to the annulment of the article 35/3 of the Legal Profession Act
Numbered 1136 amended by the Law Numbered 5728 for joint stock
companies.
Grounds of Annulment Application
An application had been made by Trabzon 2
nd
Criminal Court of
Peace for the annulment of the relevant article with the case numbered
2010/10 before the Constitutional Court. The grounds for this applica-
tion were the incompatibility allegations of the act with the essential
constitutional principles, such as state of law, equality, freedom of con-
tract, right to privacy and legality of the penalties. Trabzon 2
nd
Criminal Court of Peace asserted in its challenge that the article 35/3
of the Legal Profession Act was contrary to the above-mentioned fun-
damental constitutional principles.
Paragraph 3 of Article 35 of the Legal Profession Act
In the article 35/3 of the Legal Profession Act of which the annul-
ment is requested by Trabzon 2
nd
Criminal Court of Peace, it is initial-
ly stipulated that all person with the capacity of filing a lawsuit may
file a lawsuit and pursue it on their own without hiring any legal rep-
resentative - the litigant in person. However, there is an exception to
this general rule of litigant in person, for certain joint stock companies,
with the provision stating;
“joint stock companies of which the autho-
rized capital is equal to the fivefold or more of the authorized capital
mentioned in Article 272 of the Turkish Commercial Code and build-
ing societies which have one hundred or more members should recruit
an attorney at law”
.
COMMERCIAL LAW
117
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Article of February 2012