Transitioning Towards a Presidential System under a State of Emergency
CEFTUS and Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) will hold a joint roundtable with Professor of Law Dr Osman Can, Member of Venice Commission of Council of Europe and former Justice and Development Party (AK Party) MP for Istanbul on 9th October 2017.
After the referendum on the constitutional changes that took place in April 2017, Turkey has officially adopted an executive presidency as a system of governance. Presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on the same day in November 2019. The elected President will be both head of state and head of government for the first time in the history of the Republic of Turkey. Dr Osman Can will outline the amendments in the Turkish constitution and analyse the legal issues arising under state of emergency rule which has been in place since the July 2016 coup attempt.
Speaker Biography
Professor Dr Osman Can is a lecturer at Marmara University Law School. He is a member of the Venice Commission and an advisory member of the Council of Europe.
Dr Can was appointed to the Constitutional Court as rapporteur-judge in July 2002. In 2006, he became an associate professor by unanimous decision of the Board of Higher Education Jury. His habilitation thesis was entitled “The Democratisation Process and Closing of Political Parties in Turkey”.
In 2007 he advised to the Constitutional Court that the election of the President of the Republic directly by the people would not violate the constitution. His recommendation was accepted. In 2010, he co-founded Democratic Judiciary, an association calling for the impartiality and plurality of the judiciary. In the same year, the Lawyers Association honoured him as the “Jurist of the Year”. In October 2010 he resigned from the Constitutional Court. After constitutional amendments had been approved by the referendum of 2010, he started the initiative for a new constitution. The Platform for New Constitution arranged countrywide meetings to prepare the framework for the first social contract of the Republic of Turkey. In 2011 he was awarded the “Thinker of the year” by Writers Union of Turkey.
Dr Can served as a member of the Central Decision-Making and Administrative Committee of the AK Party and was elected a Member of Parliament for Istanbul in June 2015. He was a Member of the AK Party’s Constitutional Committee, which led the constitution-making process in Turkey during 2012-2015. In November 2015 he left politics and returned to academia.
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