FOUNDATION
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University was founded on the 21st July 2010 and it started its teaching with the 100 students admitted in the following academic year. The Faculty of Law which aims at high quality education not only for undergraduate study but also for postgraduate studies, has accepted students for master programmes and launched its training. Our faculty has experienced, young and dynamic academic staff that has got their undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from the leading universities of Europe and Turkey.
VISION AND GOALS
Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Law aims at educating intellectual jurists sensitive to current issues and who contribute to the improvement of law and state of law by their research and enforcement activities answering the needs of our age in the lights of scientific data.
Considering that it is a necessity for undergraduates to know at least one foreign language, Yıldırım Beyazıt University Faculty of Law has prepared a syllabus solving the language problem in advance that students will experience in the future. At the faculty, 30% English education has been given to our students since the 2011-2012 academic year. Professional English lessons will continue for 4 years. In addition, students will be given the opportunity of learning second foreign language as an option. Hence, a student will have learned second language besides he has already learned English very well.
At our faculty, Competition Law, Energy Law, Telecommunication Law and Patent Law that are currently developing and accepted as important in the market will be taught as elective courses. Moreover, our Faculty focusing on practice aims at giving Law of Advocacy. Thanks to these courses, our candidate law students will have experience in matters like examining a file and writing a petition after graduation.
To sum up, there are three points which make our faculty different from the other faculties. First one is teaching another second language together with English, second one is providing recently developed law disciplines as elective courses and the last is providing practical courses for our students in order to not to have troubles in profession after graduation.
MODULAR SYSTEM and OUR DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
In our faculty, elective courses are defined as modules according to their subjects, and a student who completes a certain credit in each module is given a certificate showing the area he/she has completed at graduation.
In summary; various basic features that make our faculty different from other faculties;
- One year compulsory English preparatory program application
- At least thirty percent of the courses are in a foreign language
- Having the opportunity to take more law courses in a second language
- Inclusion of courses related to developing branches of law in its program
- The program includes practice courses such as Moot Court, Moot Court, Legal Discussions, Legal Practices, Legal Clinics
- Giving students the opportunity to obtain a certificate by completing certain elective course modules
DEPARTMENTS
There are two departments at our Faculty. Yet these departments are not as such of providing different education programme and diplomas. Like in many other law faculties, at our faculty there are two main departments as Public Law and Private Law.
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LAW
There are eight sub-departments in the Department of Public Law at our faculty.
1. Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law has basically two dimensions. First one of them is related to the main organisation of state. In this dimension, constitutional law examines the establishment, operation of main organs of state and relations among them such as legislation, execution and judiciary. In the second dimension, Constitutional Law examines the relations between individual and state within the scope of fundamental rights and freedoms. In this dimension, fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals are granted by constitutions. Within the General Theory of Constitutional Law, the issues are addressed in a broad and abstract manner by being independent from the regulations of any particular country and the universal regulations valid for all political systems are also examined within the scope of comparative law and international regulations. In the Turkish Constitutional Law course, the development of Turkish Constitutional Law from the past to the present and the main organisation of state and the regime of fundamental rights and freedoms within the constitution currently in force are addressed.
2. Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law
Criminal law is addressed in two parts as general and specific provisions in parallel with the systematic of the Turkish Criminal Code. General provisions involve the main principals of Criminal Law and the theories of crime and punishment while specific provisions involve the certain types of crime regulated in criminal legislation. In the scope of Criminal Procedure Law, issues like procedural principles, treatments and subjects; and investigation and prosecution stages; protection measures and substantiation are addressed. Health Law, Forensic Medicine and Criminology are the legal disciplines closely related to Criminal and Criminal Procedure Law.
3. Law Philosophy and Sociology of Law
Law Philosophy is a discipline which examines the philosophical development of law and intellectual heritage affecting law, and aims at reinforcing positive law by criticising it in a philosophical manner. Sociology of law is a discipline which examines the relation between law in force and human being; and evaluates the results of this interaction in the light of empirical data. This discipline again examines the change of law within this intellectual data by addressing the development of modern sociology and its today. Both disciplines are in a close relationship with Philosophy, Sociology, History, Anthropology, Social Psychology, Political History, Politics and History of Religions.
4. Administrative Law
Administrative Law means the law applicable to the organisation, activities, personnel and inspection of administration. Administrative Law, unlike other disciplines of law, is a recently developed discipline of law. The main reason of this is that the concept of “Administrative Law” consisting of rules applicable to the activities, organisation and inspection of administration has emerged together with the understanding of the state of law. Despite being a new discipline of law, administrative law has been constantly developing and expanding correspondingly with the developments and changes in the understanding of the state of law. There is no code gathering rules of administrative law under a single roof like the Civil Code, Commercial Code and Criminal Code. This situation arises from the fact that rules of Administrative Law are very wide and scattered. Despite this, primarily the Constitution, decrees, bylaws, regulations, judgements, international agreements and other regulatory treatments such as directives and circulars are main sources of Administrative Law. The scope of Administrative Law involves the concepts of public service and public interest, administrative organisation and its operation, public entity, state economic enterprises, administrative acts and actions, administrative contracts, the concept of police, public goods and expropriation, public officials and public procurement procedures. The main subjects of Administrative Procedure Law are administrative judicial organs liable for inspecting the legality of administrative acts and actions which are carried out by administration while it performs public service, procedures and principles followed by these organs during the proceedings; and the problems occurring during the application of these procedures.
5. Fiscal Law
Fiscal Law is a scientific discipline which examines the management of state’s revenues and expenditures, the financing of expenditures and the management of the other assets and debts under the headings of Public Finance, Tax Law and Budget Law on a legal basis. Fiscal Law as a part of entire law is adjacent to Constitutional and Administrative Law; reasoning, judgement and Procedural law; Commercial and Criminal Law. The theory of Fiscal Law is directly related to sciences like Economics, Finance and Accounting.
6. International Law
International law, is defined as the set of rules which regulates the relations among international community members and also named as international public law or law of nations. The main subjects of international community are states and international organisations which have the rights and responsibilities and also have the capacity to directly protect their rights in the international arena. States are the main subjects of international law and international organisations are the subjects created by states. International law first emerged and developed between independent states trading with each other. Within the scope of international law, primarily the theory of international law, the sources of international law and their effects on the domestic law are addressed. The other issues existing in this scope are the subjects of international law, the relations among these subjects (diplomatic relations, consular relations, international responsibility and methods of settling international disputes) and international regime of places (international waters, rivers, lakes, air and space).
7. Legal History
There are two areas under the sub-department of Legal History. In the Roman Law, the relevant institutions of Family and Property Law; and Law of Persons and Obligations are comparatively addressed. In the Turkish Legal History, there generally exist law regimes applied and rules of substantive and formal law regulating trade life and social life in Turkish states before and after Islam.
8. General Public Law
General Public Law, on its broadest meaning, is a discipline of law which examines the relations between individual, community and state from legal perspective.
In other words, General Public Law examines the structure, scope, borders, change and evolution of the concept of the power in a bidirectional manner in terms of persons, institutions and communities whichever have the power or whichever are subjected to the power.
First, the emergence of the concept of state and the power; their historical and sociological basis; the structure, elements, organs and operation of the concept of state; in general terms the whole historical perspective and in specific terms the development and evolution of the concept of state by acquiring international character within the process of globalisation; and in this context the constructive and formative features of international and supranational institutions over the new power relations are within the field of General Public Law.
Second, in the perspective of concept of state and power, the individual and collective positions of individuals, who are subjected to the concept of sovereignty, and the transformation of their positions before the power, constitute the field of General Public Law. In this regard, within the framework of conceptual codes of facts of serf, subjects and citizens, relations of individuals with the power in social life and their positions before the power are addressed in the historical process from a legal perspective.
Following this point, the emergence, development and content of human rights and its de facto feature of limiting the power are the other issues of General Public Law.
DEPARTMENT OF PRIVATE LAW
There are ten sub-departments in the Department of Private Law of our Faculty.
1. Civil Law
Civil law includes the whole set of rules regulating the actions, transactions and relations of individuals in social life and in this context it sets the personal statutes, family relations, rights and obligations over goods and the future of heritage after death of citizens living in a country. The rules of Civil Law in Turkey are regulated by the Turkish Civil Code. This Code composes of five separate parts as “initial provisions”, “law of persons”, “family law”, “law of inheritance” and “law of property”. Provisions regarding Law of Obligations are regulated in the Turkish Code of Obligations separately from the Civil Code. Law of Obligations is a private law discipline regulating the debtor-creditor relationship among persons. The primary subjects of Law of Obligations are the establishment provisions, types and termination of debtor-creditor relationship. Apart from these, disciplines like Health Law, Consumer Law and Construction Law are considered as closely relevant disciplines with Civil Law.
2. Labour and Social Security Law
Labour and Social Security Law consists of two main areas as labour law and Social Security Law. Generally, in Labour Law, the relation between employer and employee is addressed and the disputes arising out of this relationship are regulated. Labour Law is examined under two headings as individual and collective labour law. In the context of individual labour law, the basic concepts of labour law; the establishment, provisions and termination of labour contract; the obligations arising from labour contract; organisation of work; occupational safety and health are addressed. In the scope of collective labour law, the establishment and operation of labour unions; collective labour contract and collective disputes are addressed. Social Security Law addresses the protection of individuals against economic results of certain risks. In this context, the basic concepts of Social Security Law, short term-long term insurance branches, general health insurance and unemployment insurance are addressed.
3. Civil Procedure, Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law
Organisations of courts; function and jurisdiction of courts; trial; inquiry; evidence; judicial proceedings; specific situations in trails; legal remedies; final decision and arbitration issues are the subjects of Civil Procedure Law. Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law includes the subjects of executive organs, proceedings on a bill of exchange, proceedings on recovery of secured amount, seizure. Disciplines such as Arbitration Law, Advocacy Law, Notary Law, Legal Correspondence and Methods of Alternative Disputes Resolution are closely related disciplines with Civil Procedure, Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law.
4. International Private Law
The main subject of International Private Law is to solve disputes arising from events and relations having a foreign element In this context, citizenship, foreigners, conflict of laws and International Procedure Law fall within the scope of International Private Law. Of these, Nationality Law includes the legal rules which regulate the procedures in relation to the acquisition and loss of citizenship, the execution of citizenship services. Foreigners Law consists of substantive legal rules indicating whether foreigners in a country can enjoy the rights and freedoms. Conflict of laws involves the rules which identify the rules to be applied on disputes including foreign elements. Within the scope of international procedure law, there exist procedure rules identifying the international jurisdiction of Turkish courts and also the subjects as recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements and international arbitration.
5. Commercial Law
Commercial law consists of legal rules regulating commercial activities in social life. These activities can be classified as individual commercial relations, partnership relations and institutional relations. In accordance with the classification existing in the Turkish Commercial Code as a basis of Commercial Law; in this context there exist Business Law, Company Law, Negotiable Instruments Law, Transport Law, Maritime Law and Insurance Law. Law disciplines like Intellectual Property Law, Capital Market Law, Competition Law, Banking Law and Arbitration Law are closely related to Commercial Law.
6. Islamic Law
Islam, which carries individual and social life of those who is subject to itself, to the peak point since its birth, presents the most appropriate rules of human’s nature. In almost its 1400 years adventure, Islam has influenced the Iberian Peninsula of Europe and its east part, Far East, the north and inner part of Africa and the middle and front part of Asia.
Islamic law, which is established as a separate sub-department at our University, will be provided mainly by covering its private law aspects. As the content of the course, issues considered under the headings of private law such as Law of Persons, Family Law (marriage, divorcement and the other forms of termination, guardianship, lineage, alimony, etc.) Law of Inheritance, Law of Obligations, Property Law and Law of Foundations will be examined in Islam.
7. Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property is an increasingly important concept after the Industrial Revolution. Intellectual Property Law has emerged as a branch of law that regulates rights on intellectual products such as copyright, trademark, design and patent. In this context, our program includes different courses in Turkish and English.
8. Maritime Law
The Maritime Law includes the rules for both countries to benefit from sea and ocean waters and the rules about the commercial and related activities carried out on the sea and the oceans. Maritime Law is also included as a graduate program in our faculty, so it is possible for our students to continue their careers by entering these programs after graduation.
9. Digital Law
One of the most important concepts of the age we live in is knowledge. More accurately, it is digital information and its dissemination. It affects all aspects of our lives. Information is spread and accessed through developing technologies. For this reason, informatics law has emerged as a branch of law that deals with the impact of information and technology on people as a whole. There are many IT law courses in Turkish and English in our program.
10. Comparative Law
Comparative Law is a branch of law that reveals the similarities and differencea between the different judical systems of the governments by comparing them. In accordance with the development of technology today, the governments are often influenced by new regulations acknowledged at other governments. This gives way to the obligation for each government to renew and chance their judical system in accordance with new regulations. Comparative Law contributes to positive law by revealing the concepts, similarities and differences of foreign judical systems. Comparative Law is significant for being aware of different judical regulations of other countries and having a different point of view.