General Assembly Upholds Enforcement Of Unreasoned Foreign Court Decisions

On February 10 2012 the General Assembly for Unification of Conflicting Judgments of the Court of Appeals issued a decision on whether enforcing an unreasoned foreign court judgment in Turkey constitutes a breach of Turkish public policy.¹

Facts

On November 24 2009 a petition was filed with the First Presidency of the Court of Appeals to resolve the discrepancies between six decisions of different chambers of the Court of Appeals regarding whether enforcement of unreasoned foreign court judgments is contrary to Turkish public policy. The decisions subject to the petition were as follows:

• The Second Chamber ruled² that an unreasoned foreign divorce judgment was contrary to Turkish public policy and thus could not be enforced in Turkey. In a separate decision³ it ruled that a clear violation of public policy may occur only if the fundamental rights and freedoms stipulated by the Constitution, the basic principles acknowledged by international law (eg, the right to fair hearing