Analysis of adjudications about urban planning in Turkey over the term "Public interest"

The term public interest has various extensions such as political, social, economic, juridical, and philosophical and its definition changed depending on historical conditions and according to different approaches. Therefore it has no accurate and common definition. The term public interest which has a long history has altered since the ancient ages until today and has attained its modern meaning for the first time with French Revolution in 1789. Understanding of public interest of classical liberalism period, as incompatible with the one in welfare state period, public interest understanding of the neoliberal has gained an understanding of the different content than others. Understanding of public interest in Turkey has also undergone significant changes in the historical conditions. It in indisputable that urban plans as one of the administrative process in Turkey should be based on public interest. In Turkey, Danıştay bases nearly all of its decisions on the principle of public interest in the lawsuits regarding urban plans. However, against the variable definition of public interest depending on the historical conditions and different approaches, it is unavoidable that Danıştay to choose one of the public interest approaches for identifying what is suitable or not for public interest in the urban planning options. The base definition of public interest will be clear with Danıştay's decisions in respect to historical periods on the real events in regarding to urban plans. In this thesis, the aspect of Danıştay's continuing public interest approach in the neoliberal era after 1980, which was developed in 1960s welfare state conditions, was demonstrated in a positivist approach. Keywords: Urban, urbanization, urban planning, public interest, administrative jurisdiction.