ULUM (Aug 2019)
The Transformation of Ottoman Criminal Law in the 19th Century: The Example of Crime of Complicity
Abstract
In the XIX. century, Ottoman State has witnessed changes in many areas. Looking at the content of both the dated 1840 and the dated 1851 Penal Codes legislated in Tanzimat Era, it has seen that the transformation in criminal procedure, the judicial system, administrative fields were attempted to be accommodated with penal codes. The aim of this study is to seek answers to the question of how the criminal law of the Ottoman State changed in the period starting with the 1858 Penal Code in the nineteenth century within scope of ta‘zir (discretionary punishment) and more particularly, crime of murder and complicity as one of special forms of crime. The discussions of the criminal law scholars of the period about the nature of Article 45 regarding complicity in the 1858 Penal Code and their seeking solutions and how they developed new rules due to need in the process and at this point how they benefited from European penal codes, commentaries and their scholars will be attempted to demonstrate. More importantly, it will be witnessed how Ottoman judges used the classical principles in their minds when implementing the article of code. However, when looking from a broad perspective, we will see how the Classical Law School, in which Ottoman State was included through it’s 1858 Penal Code, and the crime policy of France and the French Penal Code have influenced Ottoman Criminal Law.
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