Principle of legal certainty in Turkish constitutional law

The guarantee of the rights and freedoms of all individuals in a society is the state of law. The basic necessity of the rule of law is the legal rules that create the order. For the existence of the state of law, the legal rules that constitute the order must be clear, understandable and accessible. In this context, the principle of legal certainty requires that legal rules, regulatory procedures of the administration and jurisprudence be clear, understandable and accessible to individuals. Laws are one of the cornerstones necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals. If the laws are not specific, the existence of other state of law guarantees will have no meaning. The individual must know the laws he/she is dealing with, clearly understand them and be able to access their content. Otherwise, society cannot be expected to comply with rules that it does not know. Applying sanctions to individuals in accordance with laws that have not been disclosed secretly will clearly lead to a violation of the rule of law. One of the most basic elements of the rule of law is that individuals are certain about the responsibilities they are obliged to comply with and the rights they can claim. This thesis aims to explain that legal rules must be accessible and specific in accordance with the principle of the rule of law. The thesis consists of two parts. In the first part, the theoretical framework of the principle of legal certainty will be discussed, and in the second part, its practical dimension will be discussed. In theory and practice, it is seen that from time to time the nature of the principle is explained differently, it is confused with other principles, or it is used incorrectly as a concept. For this reason, first of all, the content, elements and requirements of the principle will be explained and clarified. The benefit expected from this study is the explanation of the principle of legal certainty, which is a requirement of the rule of law, within the framework of Turkish Constitutional Law.