Geographical jurisdiction of civil courts in Turkish civil Procedural Law

Venue rules are the rules which show the geographically competent court to bring a court case. The venue rules are prepared based on various considerations with respect to several connection points. Connection points are determined through considering the objective of established venue rule or the principle of procedure law to be applied. For example, in some circumstances the case which is still in the position of an allegation must be brought before the court of domicile of defendant; in some other circumstances the court where is in the place of domicile of plaintiff may be competent for the purpose of protecting the plaintiff who is in a weaker position. Again, in some circumstances, the venue rules are established by considering the place where the subject matter of the dispute is located or occurred in order for making the proceedings more efficient by directly and quickly reaching to the evidence with regard to the subject matter of the dispute. In certain circumstances the venue rules are compulsory, and the case must be brought before the court in the relevant venue rule; in other circumstances the court stated in the relevant venue rule is elective and this does not abolish the authority of other competent courts. In civil procedure law, venue rules regarding civil courts are basically regulated between articles 5 and 19 of the Turkish Code of Civil Procedure (TCCP). In addition to these rules, some venue rules are regulated under special codes as well as some rules regarding geographically competent court for some types of specific cases and proceedings provided are stated in the other parts of the TCCP. In addition, there may be cases that there are no rules as to competent court in codes. There are also many cases where venue rules lead to interpretation difficulties as a result of which there are disagreeing scholarly opinions or court precedents. As for interpretation of venue rules and determination of competent court for no venue rules are provided, the way of interpretation which ensures the case can be brought in the easiest way, the proceeding can be conducted in the most efficient and the quickest way and providing the balance of interests of parties should be preferred.