Participation to public law suit

The persons affected by the crime who were formerly second importance have gained a more active role in the criminal proceedings with the change of the criminal law viewpoint. Parallel with this viewpoint, Criminal Procedure Code has granted many rights to the person affected by the crime both during the investigation and prosecution. One of the most important right is the right to participation to public law suit which also constitutes the subject of this thesis. Participation to public law suit is required in terms of preventing people who are affected by the crime from enforcement of one's rights without resorting to judicial procedure and providing a moral satisfaction to the victim of the crime who could possibly feel as being apologized to through the judgment. Moreover, right to participation to public law suit plays a key role to embody equality of arms principle in terms of accused and aggrieved person. Participation to public law suit is prescribed by the Criminal Procedure as applicable to the all kinds of crimes. Participation actually constitutes an exception to the prevailing rule of the criminal proceeding which is that the criminal acts shall be prosecuted by the state. With this institution, persons affected by the crime are given the opportunity to establish individual prosecution besides the public prosecutor by participation to the public law suit. Within this frame in this study definition of participation to public law suit, its legal nature, necessity, and historical development are primarily emphasized, later conditions and the procedure of the participation to public law suit are examined, and finally its consequences and the ways of termination are explained. Keywords: Participation, Right to Participation to Public Law Suit, Participant, The Person Affected by the Crime, Victim.