The principle of judicial independence in Turkey

Judicial independence and guarantee of magistracy are concepts which are created to ensure that adjudication agency is able to operate objectively. The terms judicial independence and guarantee of magistracy came out based on separation of powers and have been accepted as two of the most important principles of a constitutional state since then. Judicial independence and guarantee of magistracy are the issues on which people have agreed since ancient times. Today, these concepts which are related to adjudication agency are still accepted and legally guaranteed by many democratic countries. These concepts are accepted not only as a part of internal regulations of government but also as principles appreciated in international contracts.Ensuring judicial independence and guarantee of magistracy is mostly depended on the systems applied for appointing judges and personnel matters. The systems used in personnel matters and appointing judges differs. The systems of appointing judges and personnel matters are: selection by legislation agency, selection by executive agency, appointing judges through public election, judges? appointing judges and selection by special committees. Among these systems, judges? appointing judges hasn?t applied extensively since it may lead to the caste system.In Turkey, some constitutional and legal regulations have been implemented for the sake of judicial independence and guarantee of magistracy. Appointing judges and personnel matters are executed by the Higher Judges and Prosecutors Council which is an independent committee. New regulations have been implemented in order to solve the problems caused by the amendments to the constitution in 2010 and by the formation and operation of the committee. Current problems have relatively been solved to a large extent as a result of the alterations to the constitution.Key words: judicial independence, guarantee of magistracy, separation of powers, constitutional state.