Strengthening the regulatory capacity of the General Directorate for Legislation of the Turkish Ministry of Justice
Project facts
- Funder: Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MATRA)
- Partner: Lexchange Ltd (The Hague), Turkish Ministry of Justice – General Directorate of Legislation
- Project period: March 2011 – November 2012
- For information mail to: office@nhc.nl
As part of the accession process of Turkey to the European Union, a lot of EU legislation has to be transposed into Turkish law. The Turkish Ministry of Justice is responsible for the quality of draft laws in the legislative process. To this end, the General Directorate of Legislation examines newly drafted laws and checks their quality before they are submitted to Parliament. As a result, they are the first to experience the pressure put on the lawmaking process by the size of the acquis communautaire that has to be implemented. Like most countries, the Turkish government lacks a special training programme to train and further educate the legislative experts, which enhances their problems regarding capacity. This results in problems regarding the implementation of the laws, and necessitates many amendments.
This project aims to contribute to an improvement of the capacity of the General Directorate for Legislation and help them become more able to deal with large quantities of draft laws related to the implementation of the EU’s acquis communautaire. The NHC became involved in the project after it had already been initiated by a different organization. Due to unique circumstances, the NHC took over their role in the project. As a result, no activities were organised within the project in 2011, and with the end of the Matra program in sight, there was no time left to organise all the project activities according to the original project plan anymore. Capacity building continues to be highly important for the Turkish partner, so a new activity plan was developed with them. In line with the priorities of the Turkish Ministry of Justice, the project now entails organising two large and intensive study visits will be organised for the legislation experts of the Turkish General Directorate of Legislation.
