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consideration is whether the fundamental values of Turkish law, the
general public moral and main legal policy, fundamental rights and
freedoms, concept of justice are violated by such foreign judgment or
not.
Decision of the Court of Cassation Grand Chamber of
Unification of Jurisprudence
The Court of Cassation Grand Chamber of Unification of
Jurisprudence has resolved with a majority exceeding two thirds of the
votes that
“the mere lack of justification of foreign judgments shall not
prevent the enforcement of final foreign court judgments”
. The
Decision states that the justification is a concept of procedural law and
thus the declaration of foreign court judgments not including any jus-
tification in violation of the public order is regarded as a violation of
the prohibition of
révision au fond
. Whilst assessing compliance with
public order, violation of fundamental principles and the concept of
justice as well as fundamental rights and freedoms shall be taken into
consideration instead of violation of any mandatory provision under
Turkish law.
Nonetheless, the chair and members of the Court of Appeal 13
th
Civil Chamber have given negative votes to the Decision and submit-
ted their dissenting opinion. The dissenting opinion states that viola-
tion of the public order may only be assessed with the justification of
a judgment. The members having given negative votes affirm that the
verdict section of a judgment is a mere statement of conclusions with
respect to the claims and that compliance with the public order may
only be assessed once the verdict and the justification are regarded as
a whole.
Conclusion
The Civil Chambers of the Court of Cassation had adopted differ-
ent jurisprudence with respect to whether the lack of justification of
foreign court judgments constitutes an explicit violation of the public
order or not. Therefore, the Court of Cassation Grand Chamber of
Unification of Jurisprudence resolved this difference by its Decision
adopted on 10 February 2012.
LAW OF CIVIL PROCEDURE
237