Türkiye’s 12th Judicial Package Published in the Official Gazette

Law No. 7589 on Amendments to Certain Laws for the Effective and Efficient Functioning of the Judiciary, widely known as the 12th Judicial Package, was adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 16 July 2026 and published in the Official Gazette on 31 July 2026.

The law amends a number of statutes, including the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Obligations, the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law, the Civil Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Criminal Code, the laws on administrative courts, the Notaries Law and the law on statutory interest. Most provisions took effect on publication; certain provisions on e-hearings and electronic sales apply three months after publication.

Code of Civil Procedure

• Claims of uncertain amount abolished. Such claims filed before the change will continue under the previous rules.
• Increasing a partial claim: The claim may be increased once, until the end of the investigation stage; limitation for the increased portion is deemed interrupted on the filing date.
• Hearing intervals: The interval between two hearings may not exceed three months; in compelling cases, such as lengthy expert examinations, the judge may set a longer period with reasons.
• E-hearings: Participants attending electronically will not need to provide a wet signature; admissions, oaths, consent to withdrawal, waivers, acceptance and settlement are excluded. (Effective three months after publication.)
• Joinder and separation: A joinder decision may be challenged only by appeal to the regional court, and the court of the first case is bound by it once it becomes final.
• Appeal threshold: Appeals to the Court of Cassation against new merits decisions of regional courts are now subject to the monetary threshold.

Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law

• Partition sales among heirs: Where all owners acquired the property by inheritance and no one other than the heirs holds ownership rights, if partition by sale is ordered, the first auction is held only among the heir-owners, on a one-time basis.
• Defaulting bidders: A highest bidder who fails to pay on time forfeits the deposit and faces an administrative fine of 5% of the bid.

Civil Code

• Guardianship sales online: Auctions of assets belonging to persons under guardianship will be held on an electronic sales portal integrated with UYAP, and the guardianship authority must approve within ten days of the auction. (Effective three months after publication.)

Code of Obligations

• Interest on compensation: For loss of earning capacity and loss of support, statutory interest runs from the date of the incident for the period in which earnings are known, and from the judgment date for the period in which they are not. The rule applies to events after its entry into force.

Statutory interest

• Statutory interest: The rate will be set at 80% of the Central Bank’s rediscount rate for short-term loans, and the 30 June rate applies in the second half of the year if it differs from the 31 December rate by five points or more.

Code of Criminal Procedure

• Deferral of the announcement of the verdict (HAGB): The mechanism was restructured, with a five-year supervision period, a requirement to compensate the loss (with instalments possible) and a right of appeal; it no longer applies to torture, ill-treatment and similar offences.

Criminal Code

• Handing over accounts or payment instruments: Where participation in fraud is limited to giving another person bank or credit cards, or the access details of bank, payment or crypto-asset accounts, the sentence is halved.

Administrative courts

• Administrative courts: The monetary limit for cases heard by a single judge was raised to TRY 486,000; the grounds on which regional administrative courts may quash and remit were narrowed, and decisions issued after quashing may be appealed to the Council of State within thirty days.

Notaries Law

• Notaries: Notarial documents requested by courts and prosecutors may be sent electronically with a secure e-signature.

The law contains no general amnesty or sentence-execution provisions. How the changes affect pending cases should be assessed case by case under the law’s transitional provisions.

Full text of the law in the Official Gazette (in Turkish) ↗