Home > 5.3 Validity of the question > TÜRKIYE - Opinion on the Amendments to the Constituion Adopted by the Grand National Assembly on 21 January 2017 and to be Submitted to a National Referendum on 16 April 2017
 
 
 
Download file    
 
 
Paragraph 94
 

In addition to the already existing power to appoint some of the judges of the Constitutional Court and ¼ of the judges of the Council of State, under the amendments the President will be empowered to appoint four out of thirteen members of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors, in addition to the Minister of Justice who presides the CJP. The Undersecretary who also sits on the CJP is presumably also one of the high officials to be appointed by the President. It should be stressed in this context that under the amendments the President will no longer be required to act as a pouvoir neutre, with the consequence that there is an actual risk that these appointments will be partisan. The change in the role of the President should have had as a consequence to reduce his or her role in respect to the appointment of judges. Instead, this role has been maintained for the Constitutional Court and Council of State and increased for the CJP.