Compensation for Unlawful Practices related to Administrative Detention of Foreigners in Turkey

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of the case law in Turkey concerning compensation of unlawful practices of administrative detention. Such cases happen when implementation of administrative detention is unlawful in terms of right to personal liberty and security, or when the administrative detention conditions are against human dignity. The paper follows an empirical and analytical method as the analysis is built on the decisions of the Turkish Constitutional Court (“CC”) in individual applications and on the judgments by local courts. Accordingly, as explained in the first section, in the first phase of CC’s decisions, the lack of a special compensation mechanism for unlawful practices of administrative detention was recognized and compensation was granted in favor of the applicants. Second section of the paper analyzes the landmark decision of CC where it changed its case law and required exhaustion of administrative full remedy action for compensation claims related to administrative detention. Building on this background, in the last two sections of the paper first, it is assessed whether administrative full remedy action is an effective legal remedy with respect to compensating unlawful administrative detention practices and second, a critical analysis is offered on CC’s approach to the claims of compensation in the light of its landmark decision.