New regulation on the way for law school graduates

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç met with students from the Faculty of Law at Atatürk University in Erzurum.

"ENTRANCE EXAM REQUIREMENT FOR LEGAL PROFESSIONS"

Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç said, “We have too many law schools. Due to this surplus, and because there are many graduates—especially those working in defense as lawyers—we need to address the shortcomings in ensuring a strong defense in the coming periods. In this sense, a limitation on quotas had been implemented. We are working on reducing the quota to one hundred thousand. Our brothers and sisters who graduate from law school will no longer be able to start their legal internship directly. Nor will they be able to take the judge and prosecutor exam immediately. A young brother or sister of ours who graduates from law school will first have to pass the entrance exam for legal professions. This system begins starting next year.

"THOSE WHO ACHIEVE THE REQUIRED SCORE WILL BE ACCEPTED INTO THE PROFESSION"

If a student who passes the entrance exam for legal professions wants to become a lawyer, only those who pass that exam can begin their legal internship. We have also abolished the judge and prosecutor candidate system. We have replaced it with a judge and prosecutor assistant system. Judge and prosecutor candidacy used to last two years. The judge and prosecutor assistantship will last three years. They will receive strong, significant training at the Justice Academy for one year. Experienced professors, practitioners, members of the Court of Cassation, and judges from appellate and first-instance courts will provide training there. During that training, they will pass interim exams at various times. Afterward, once that training is completed, they will work as judge and prosecutor assistants alongside experienced judges and prosecutors for two years. During their time working there, they will not be able to sign judicial decisions. However, in other matters, they will work as assistants to our judges and prosecutors, assisting in the drafting of decisions, all while working in a master-apprentice relationship alongside our experienced judicial personnel, and those experienced judges and prosecutors will give them scores. Afterward, those who achieve a certain score will be accepted into this profession.” he said.

"WE HAVE LAWS MUCH NEWER THAN EUROPE'S"

Minister Tunç stated that Turkey is now a country that possesses some of the best laws of its era, adding, “In other words, we have laws that are much newer than the fundamental laws of Europe. You are lucky in this regard. Especially these changing fundamental laws coincided exactly with the time you were receiving your education. And you will graduate from law school with them and start your profession with them. We had been educated with old laws. Now, adapting to new laws that change later can sometimes cause some delays in the implementation process. But that has also been compensated for. Of course, in the time that has passed, our changing laws require new amendments in line with new needs. And we believe that our Parliament will fulfill the necessary actions regarding those amendments without delay, in line with the proposals and suggestions coming from our law schools and academics, the results emerging from your classroom discussions, as well as the suggestions put forward by the judiciary and practitioners, the demands coming from our citizens, and the demands coming from all areas of the judiciary.”

News Source: 12punto