The Mobility of Legal Education in the Tanzimat Period and Mekteb-i Hukuk-ı Şahane

Abstract

The law is one of the basic and vital foundations that the human species needs to ensure the order existing in nature between individuals in a “just” manner. Law has been an instrument of education in the context of acquiring and learning the awareness of rights as well as rights acquired from birth. In this study, the mobility of the legal education applied during the Tanzimat period of the Ottoman Empire is explored. The establishment of the Encümen-i Daniş and Darülfünun and the deployment of legal education within the higher education model during the construction of the modern academic system are addressed chronologically. The establishment, curriculum, administration/teaching staff, and student profile of the Mekteb-i Hukuk-ı Şahane, which started its education activities as an independent school, are analysed. The graduates of the school, with their identities as jurists, were involved in many different activities that had significance in the history of Turkish law. In this regard, the lives of many graduates could be analysed as topics that will enrich the research conducted on the history of law. Historical analysis method was used in the study and also the data were obtained by scanning the education and state yearbooks. Document analysis method was used in the analysis of the obtained data.