Commercial litigations in Ottoman courts in the post-Tanzimat judical reform process (1840-1914)

With the announcement of the Tanzimat Edict, a new process that would affect the Ottoman State in many ways began. However, the changes in the field of law and the shaping of the judicial system within the framework of new principles are particularly noteworthy. The gradual abandonment of the old system, which was surrounded by beliefs and traditions, and the transition to a new legal system based on the principle of citizenship that would cover all Muslim and non-Muslim subjects, as stated in the decree, and the pains brought about by this transition were among the most debated points of this period. The foreigners' privileges, which increased with the capitulations, gradually came to include non-Muslim Ottoman subjects, and the new groups that emerged under the name of the berated class played the main role in the change and shaping of Ottoman Commercial Law. In the changing process, first the laws and then the courts were regulated according to these laws, the single-tier Ottoman courts, which were previously dominated by women, became mixed with members of all colors, both Ottoman subjects and foreigners, and the single-tier judiciary was abandoned and the two-tier judicial procedure of bidâyet was adopted.