The bloc of reference norms in the Turkish constitutional justice

The concept of ?Reference Norms? refers to the rules to which the Constitutional Court consults in the judicial review of constitutionality, and the whole set of these rules is named as the ?Bloc of reference Norms?, or the ?Bloc of Constitutionality?. The concept is not a jurisprudential notion is employed by just the doctirine. Although the notion is a widely accepted one in the doctrine, it is also argued that the judicial rewiew of constitutionality should be performed with strict loyalty to the Constitution, excluding judicial interpretation and some outside rules. While the reference norm with which the legislature has to comply in terms of constituonality is, of course, and primarily, the Constitution itself, it cannot be declared that there is no need for such a distinct concept. This is because the criterion that the Constitutional Court adopts is not the text of the Constitution, but, rather, the meaning that the court infers from it. Consequently, the ?Bloc of Reference Norms? is an essential concept. In the Turkish Constitutional Justice; the principles of the Preamble, Atatürk?s Reforms and Principles, the principles regarding the characteristics of the Republic, the principles regarding the restriction of fundamental rights and freedoms, and the rules of international law establish the reference norms. The Constitutional Court maintains that there is a ranking order amongst these rules; such that the principles of the Preamble, Atatürk?s Reforms and Principles, and the general principles of law take precedence over the rest. İnternational agreements, on the other hand, are only used in illuminating the content of other constitutional rules.