Dülger Law Office/Publications/Video
Prof. Dr. Volkan Dülger criticises the state of the law: “Do they want to take us back to the darkness of the Middle Ages?”
(Prof. Dr. Volkan Dülger'den hukuk eleştirisi! "Bizi Orta Çağ karanlığına mı döndürmek istiyorlar?")
The video is in Turkish.
About the video
This is the recording of a studio interview on Cumhuriyet TV dated 6 May 2026; Prof. Dr. Murat Volkan Dülger was the only guest of the programme. The interview began with legal certainty, foreseeability and the principle that criminal law is a last resort, and then turned to violence against lawyers and the state of the legal profession. In the context of the proceedings publicly known as the İBB case, the discussion focused on the conditions for pre-trial detention under Article 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) and the requirement of concrete reasoning, the evidential value of statements made under the effective remorse provisions, the relationship between order in the courtroom and the right of defence, and the principle that a trial must be seen to be fair. The perception of impunity and the concern about arbitrary punishment, the offences that affect freedom of expression and the deterrent effect of punishment were discussed next. The assessment of statements by anonymous witnesses and the right of the defence to examine an anonymous witness were addressed with reference to a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on the matter. The interview ended with foreseeability and accountability in a state governed by the rule of law.