Joint custody within Turkish law

The social and cultural developments experienced by the society in the historical process have also affected the family, which is the smallest building block of the society, and many changes have taken place in this area. As a result of this change, custody, which used to express the father's sovereignty and absolute authority over the child, today represents the whole of the rights and obligations given to the mother and father for the protection of the child's interests. The acceptance of the child as a subject of rights in international convention texts and national laws is one of the essential reasons for this change in the concept of custody. In Article 336/1 of the Turkish Civil Code, it is accepted that the custody will belong to the mother and father together in the marriage union. However, it is controversial in the doctrine whether joint custody can be applied in extra-marital affairs or in cases where the marriage union ends with divorce. In many legal systems and international legal texts, it is accepted that the joint custody of the child born out of wedlock or in case the marriage union ends with divorce can be given to the parents together as a rule. However, the Turkish Civil Code (TCC) does not contain any regulation on joint custody, except for children born in wedlock. As a matter of fact, the recognition and enforcement of joint custody decisions taken from foreign state courts have not been accepted for years on the grounds that joint custody is contrary to Turkish public order. In recent years, the Court of Cassation has changed its opinion and made decisions regarding the fact that joint custody is not against the Turkish public order, and in this direction, joint custody has become more debatable within the scope of the TCC. In our study, the applicability of joint custody in marriage union as well as in divorce or extra-marital relations has been examined within the scope of current legal regulations, international agreements, regulations in comparative law and views in doctrine. Keywords: Best Interest of Child, Joint Custody, Child of Divorced Parents, Child Born from extramarital afair.