Legal Research Reports: Turkey: Presidential Decrees

The Law Library of Congress is proud to present the report, Turkey: Presidential Decrees. 

This report aims to provide a brief overview of the Turkish presidential decree (CBK),
a regulatory act that the president of the republic can issue without prior authorization
or delegation from the legislature. The power to issue CBKs was granted to the
president by constitutional amendments adopted in 2017. Being novel to Turkish
constitutional law tradition, the power has since been a focal point of interest in legal
scholarship and a matter of controversy in practice. This report explores in light of
recent scholarship and Constitutional Court decisions what we know and do not know
regarding the scope and limits of the president’s power to issue CBKs. Finally, the
report examines a recent controversy that arose from the use of a CBK to authorize the
president to withdraw from international treaties. (January 2022)