The Transformation of Ottoman Criminal Law in the 19 t h Century: The Example of Crime of Complicity=19. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Ceza Hukukundaki Dönüşüm: Suça İştirâk Örneği (original) (raw)
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The Transformation of Ottoman Criminal Law in the 19 th Century: The Example of Crime of Complicity
ulum, 2019
In the XIX. century, Ottoman State has witnessed changes in many areas. Looking at the content of both the dated 1840 and the dated 1851 Penal Codes legislated in Tanzimat Era, it has seen that the transformation in criminal procedure, judicial system, administrative fields was attempted to be accommodated with penal codes. The aim of this study is to seek answers to the question of how the criminal law of the Ottoman State changed in the period starting with the 1858 Penal Code in the nineteenth century within scope of ta'zir (discretionary punishment) and more particularly, crime of murder and complicity as one of special forms of crime. The discussions of the criminal law scholars of the period about the nature of Article 45 regarding complicity in the 1858 Penal Code and their seeking solutions and how they developed new rules due to need in the process and at this point how they benefited from European penal codes, commentaries and their scholars will be attempted to demonstrate. More importantly, it will be witnessed how Ottoman judges used the classical principles in their minds when implementing the article of code. However, when looking from a broad perspective, we will see how the Classical Law School, in which Ottoman State was included through it's 1858 Penal Code, and the crime policy of France and the French Penal Code have influenced Ottoman Criminal Law.
Criminal Codes, Crime, and the Transformation of Punishment in the Late Ottoman Empire
Kent Schull and M. Safa Saracoglu (eds.) Law and Legality in the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Turkey (Indiana University Press), 2016
This article investigates the transformation of criminal law, practice, and punishment within the late Ottoman Empire. It focuses closely on five intertwined aspects of the empire's extensively restructured criminal justice system, namely the concrete links between new penal codes, the extensive delineation of crimes, the adoption of incarceration as the primary form of criminal punishment, incarceration rates for particular crimes, and the deployment of Islamic legal norms and mores to legitimate these reforms. Through the promulgation and then expansion of these new penal codes together with other aspects of its overhauled criminal justice system, the Ottoman administration gradually gained a monopoly over the adjudication of criminal matters. This effectively circumscribed the autonomy of local administrators and Islamic court judges in adjudicating criminal cases and meting out punishments, thus making the prison the primary site of criminal punishment within the empire.
Turkish Studies, 2014
This article lays out the broad transformations within the Ottoman criminal justice system over the course of the nineteenth century in order to demonstrate how the empire transformed its long-standing methods and approaches to criminal justice by adapting “modern” concepts and practices. In the end, it created an integrated system of justice that included new penal codes, police, courts, and corrections, thus demonstrating both its unique characteristics and its comparability with contemporary states. This article first discusses the problematic, but indispensable concept of modernity and how it has hindered comparative empire studies for the long nineteenth century. It then argues for an eclectic approach to comparative empire that adopts the concept of “improvisational blending” to understanding modernity and utilizes intermediate units of analysis in promoting the study of comparative empires. Finally, this article takes the transformation of the Ottoman criminal justice system during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as an intermediate unit of analysis to illustrate a unique Ottoman modernity that is fully comparative on the trans-imperial level.
The Ruler’s Monologue: The Rhetoric of the Ottoman Penal Code of 1858
The penal code of 1858 was an important step in Ottoman legislation during the reform period (tanẓīmāt) and had a considerable impact on the concept of the state as the guardian of public order. Through the 20th century the penal code of 1858 was generally interpreted as a "(literal) translation" of the French Code Pénal of 1810 and as evidence for the "western influence" on Ottoman legislation. Recent research has started to question this interpretation, focussed more closely on the normative aspects of the Ottoman penal code and analysed the penal code of 1858 as an adaptation of French law within the context of the Ottoman legal concepts during the tanẓīmāt. In my article I analyse the text as a part of political communication, as a monologue by which the state adresses its subjects. Even if large parts of the Ottoman penal code are translations from the French, the rhetoric patterns and terminology have to be taken seriously. The amalgamation of traditional rhetorics and a new terminology turns out to be a successful strategy to legitimise new legal concepts, which include a new relation between ḳānūn and şerīʿat. In my article I will argue that the state's traditional role as the guardian of public order is the starting point for the introduction of these new legal concepts.
Crime in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1910-1911
Deviance and crime are key aspects of social life. As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious bureaucratic state, the Ottoman Empire began to collect various types of crime statistics which are understudied so far. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire still maintained its control over a significant part of the Middle East, including Syria, Palestine and Iraq and today's Turkey. In this study, we analyzed two Ottoman documents that summarized the distribution of crimes in the Ottoman provinces during the Hegira year 1329 (1910-1911 a.d.). The crimes analyzed in this study were categorized according to the 1858 Ottoman Penal Code. We further summarized and analyzed the crime rates in the Empire by major crime types and by regions. We also provided a glimpse at the nature of state's ability to solve crimes, to catch suspects, the effect of religion and culture on crime.
Some observations on the Ottoman judicial system and ilmiye group in the 18 th century
In this study, debates on the Ottoman judicial system and some changes which seen among the Ottoman learned (ilmiye) group in the 18 th will be examined. Taxes which taken by kadis in courts rearranged in 18 th century. In addition, there were seen slightly increase in arpalık (a living paid) and maişet kazas (magistrates) thus led to some completion among kadis. Moreover, discussions on the dual character of the Ottoman judicial system will be checked in this study.