Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Legal reforms

"Western law is normally regarded as universal when considered from the fact that it has been received and utilised by non-Western countries as the basis of their own state legal systems. It is accordingly natural that jurisprudence, among both Western and most non-Western scholars as well, tends to observe the development of a non-Western legal system as a history of received Western law. In fact, because of their different underlying cultural histories, there have been countless incongruities and conflicts between received Western law and indigenous non-Western law. However, these points have rarely been taken seriously by orthodox jurisprudence - a situation which may seem reasonable from the Western point of view, but is certainly not from the non-Western.

Non-Western people have each cherished their indigenous law as an integral part of their cultural heritage. During their long histories their law has on occasions encountered foreign law, whether voluntarily or not, and these encounters have led sometimes to peaceful assimilation and sometimes destructive struggle between indigenous and received law. The indigenous law may sometimes have failed to maintain itself, while at others it may have succeeded either by rejecting the encountered law or by adapting itself to conserve its cultural identity. Contemporary non-Western law is thus seen as one in a current state in an ongoing process of self-developing indigenous law whether successfully or not. "

Asian Indigenous Law: In Interaction with Received Law 

Edited by Masaji Chiba
(KPI: 1986, London - New York)

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Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's legal reforms are not much debated within this view. Newly emerged republic with the experiences of collapse of an Empire and war in many fronts, and also occupation had seen the legal reforms as a diplomatic move, as well. Claiming respect to the Western civilisation and also apparent enthusiasm for integration with the Western part of the World all of which was after the declaration of independence and the Turkish Republic.

It was very difficult to maintain a diplomacy with the Europe, at this era, where emerged two Modern World Wars. Turkish Republic's choice of diplomacy should be remarked as a choice and model of peace when we see the Western governments' relation with the Eastern countries. 

From Switzerland:

Civil Code - (1926)

Debit Law - 8 May (1928)

Execution and Bankruptcy Code (1932)

Code of Civil Procedure

From Germany:

Code of Penal Procedure (1929)

Trade Law (1928)

From Italy:

Penal Code (1928)

From France:

Administrative Code (1929)