THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PROCESS ON THE TURKISH JUDICIAL SYSTEM

Abstract

The impact of the new type corona virus, which is thought to spread from the marine animal market in Wuhan, China and announced as a "pandemic" by the World Health Organization of the United Nations, has deeply affected the relations in social life.

The effect of this epidemic, which affects the whole world, especially on the judicial system, constitutes the main theme of the study.

The judicial process and changes in the judicial order are carried out by legal regulations. In the 1st paragraph of the 6th article of the European Convention on Human Rights; stated that the individual has the right to be tried in line with the principle of fair trial. Accordingly, the fulfillment of the judicial activity within the framework of legal rules is the most important right that provides the legal guarantee of the individual. During the corona epidemic process, regulations were made in order to reduce the human circulation and social relations created by the human factor, the source of contamination, in courthouses and other institutions, with regulatory actions and recommendations.

Effective use of material and human resources should be taken into account in the administration's implementation of measures in the crisis management process. During the pandemic process, while digital law practices such as the National Judicial Network Project (UYAP), Sound and Video Information System (SEGBİS) were required to be implemented, following the policy of stopping caused some problems.

In order to prevent the liability arising from the violation of fundamental rights and independence,  digital legal instruments should be put into use. However, with this situation, backlogs in the judicial system can be prevented. In the judicial system, it is a great deficiency that UYAP system, which was regarded as "digital courthouse" before the epidemic, is not actively used by all stakeholders. The law, Presidential circular and other regulatory procedures should be supported in a way that will improve the remote judgment process and allow technical studies in accordance with the digitalization process, in line with the legal principles.

It is thought that such studies will provide effective use of crisis management by significantly reducing the human circulation in the courthouse environment.