Constitutional Court to examine main opposition party's application against 'multiple bars law' at a later date

Lawyers protesting the multiple bars law in Ankara, the capital. (Photo: AA/File)

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The Constitutional Court stated today (July 23) it will give a judgment on applications against the multiple bar associations law and the neighborhood guards law after examination as to the merits.

The cancellation requests of the regulations will be discussed on a day to be determined later and a ruling will be made, it stated.

The main opposition Republican People' Party on July 16 applied to the top court for the annulment of 21 articles of the Law on Amendments to the Attorneys' Act and some Laws. It had also applied against the Law on Downtown and Neighborhood Guards, which authorizes neighborhood guards to carry firearms and detain suspects. 

The General Assembly of the Constitutional Court completed the initial review of both applications today. It did not find any deficiencies in the applications but refused the requests for the stay of execution of both laws.

The amendment to the Attorneys' Act, which allows the establishment of more than one bar in the same city, has been enacted after being published in the Official Gazette. Accordingly, a new bar association with a minimum of 2,000 members can be found in provinces where there are more than 5,000 registered attorneys.

According to the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) figures, there are 17,598 attorneys registered at Ankara Bar, 46,052 attorneys at İstanbul Bar and 9,612 attorneys at İzmir Bar. The total number of registered attorneys in Turkey is 127,691. Therefore, the new law only affects the bar associations in these three cities. 

Why is the law requested to be annulled?

İzmir Bar Chair Özkan Yücel had told bianet about why the law should be annulled: "The Constitutional Court has already made decisions on representative justice for professional chambers. With this new law, [bars] that have 40 members and 40,000 members will be equally represented. This inequality leads to injustice in representation and cannot be legally defended."

"Also, with the new regulation, all bar elections will be held in October 2020, but the bar chairs and bar association boards that were elected a year ago are still on duty and they must be on duty for another year [bar boards are elected for two years]. The election was brought forward by an act against the will of voters, which is against the right to vote and to be elected.

"Bar associations are based on the Constitution. We carry out a public duty, including the Law on Criminal Procedures and judicial legal aid services. As there can't be multiple municipalities, multiple sub-governorships, there can't be multiple bar associations." (AS/VK)