A. LEGISLATION, TRENDS AND TENDENCIES
There have been no amendments to Turkey’s International
Arbitration Law (IAL) in the past year.
B. CASES
B.1 The Turkish Court of Appeal Redefines Public Policy
An ICC award rendered by an arbitral tribunal seated in Turkey
was recently set aside by the Turkish Court of Appeal4 for
contravening public policy. In doing so, the Court clarified the
scope of the public policy exception. The court stated that public
policy under Turkish law encompasses the following:
[T]he complete set of rules that protect the fundamental
interests of society and designate the fundamental
structure of the society, within a specific period of time,
from political, social, economic, moral and legal
perspectives…. For instance, since customs and tax laws
concern public policy, an award that orders the payment
of a receivable that contravene the tax laws will cause
public policy intervention for conflicting with fundamental
principles that are deemed indispensable by Turkish law.