Studying and teaching international law: An analysis of international law education and literature in early Republican Turkey (1923-1945)

This thesis first aims to examine international law education in Turkey in the early republican period, by focusing on the academia and educational institutions in order to seek for similarities/differences between international law education in the Ottoman Empire and early republican Turkey as well as continuities and changes in this regard. Within this framework, this thesis claims that international law education in early Republican Turkey had institutional and theoretical continuities inherited from the Ottoman Empire. However, still, transformation from imperial to republican mentality via reforming old institutions, establishing new ones and redesigning international law education in line of republican ideals show that there are significant differences as well. This thesis secondly analyzes international law literature in early republican Turkey by focusing on the themes related on international law, and by questioning whether the Turkish academia had followed international law debates in Europe. Moreover, it also looks for the impact of Turkish foreign policy issues on international law literature. Accordingly, the thesis claims that the Turkish internatinonal law academia generally followed European debates of international law in the interwar period despite some attempts for creating an original debate in the literature. Also, it argues that the Turkish international law literature in this period was dominated by legal analysis of Turkish foreign policy issues, directly or indirectly related to the Treaty of Lausanne. Keywords: International Law, Early Republic Period, Law Education, Turkish Foreign Policy, Treaty of Lausanne.