Legal Glossary

Service of documents (tebligat) is the formal notification procedure by which a document that will produce legal consequences, such as a court decision, petition, payment order or formal notice (ihtar), is delivered to its addressee in the manner and form prescribed by law, and by which that delivery is documented. Judicial authorities, public administrations, bar associations and notaries generally serve documents under Law No. 7201 on Notification through the Turkish postal service (PTT), through an official, or electronically. Many statutory time limits run from the date of proper service.

Simulation (muvazaa) is where the parties, in order to mislead third persons, enter into an apparent transaction that does not correspond to their real intention. In absolute simulation (mutlak muvazaa) there is no other transaction behind the apparent transaction; in relative simulation (nisbî muvazaa), however, behind the apparent transaction there is a hidden transaction that the parties really want.

The statute of limitations (zamanaşımı) is the institution that gives the debtor a defense of refusing performance if a claim is not asserted within the period set by law. It does not terminate the debt automatically and, as a rule, is not applied by the judge ex officio. The start, suspension and interruption of the period and special periods are examined separately for each claim.

Subject-matter jurisdiction (görev) is, as regards the civil proceedings addressed in this entry, the procedural rule that determines which type of court will hear a civil-law dispute. The rules on subject-matter jurisdiction relate to public policy; the parties cannot change the court with subject-matter jurisdiction by agreement. The court assesses on its own motion, at every stage of the proceedings, whether it has subject-matter jurisdiction.

Suretyship is a security contract by which the surety undertakes personal liability for the consequences of the debtor’s failure to perform its debt. The contract must be in writing; the maximum liability amount, the date of the suretyship and, if joint and several suretyship is undertaken, that designation or an expression with the same meaning must be indicated in the surety’s own handwriting. Spousal consent and the statutory exceptions are examined separately.