Legal Glossary

A lawsuit (dava) is a request to a court for legal protection in order to safeguard a right or resolve a dispute, and the proceedings that begin with that request. In civil procedure, a lawsuit is deemed filed on the date the statement of claim is registered with the court. Depending on the nature of the claim, an action for performance, a declaratory action or a formative action may be brought; for the court to reach the merits, procedural prerequisites such as the availability of the judicial route, subject-matter jurisdiction, capacity to be a party and legal interest must be present.

Legal interest (hukukî yarar) means that the claimant has a current, legitimate and personal need for the legal protection requested from the court. Legal interest is a procedural prerequisite and is examined by the court on its own motion. The need for protection is determined according to the type of action and the specific case; the existence of another means of application does not, on its own, remove legal interest.

A limited liability company is a capital company whose share capital consists of the total of the shareholders’ capital shares and which may be established with at most fifty shareholders. It is regulated in Articles 573 et seq. of the Turkish Commercial Code (TTK). Shareholders, as a rule, are not liable for the company’s debts; they are obliged to pay the capital share they have subscribed and to perform the additional payment and ancillary performance obligations in the company agreement. Public receivables are an important exception to this rule.