GIFTING IN THE COURT OF THE QADI: AN OVERVIEW ON JUDICIAL ETHICS IN ISLAMIC- OTTOMAN LAW

Abstract

Regulations were made in Islamic law and Ottoman Empire so that judges could decide independently, impartially and fairly. In this article, the limits of the jud-ge’s giving and receiving gifts from the parties or potential parties of the case will be examined. The boundaries of gift-giving and receiving, which are among the most significant manifestations of the integrity qualities of judges, constitute one of the main topics of the article in this regard. The differences between the con-cepts of gift and bribe will be tried to be stated. It will be seen that Ottoman prac-tice was not different from Islamic law. In the codes enacted in the Tanzimat period, it was tried to prevent judicial bribery by counting which gifts the judges could receive one by one. From this perspective, the aim of the article is to convey the boundaries of gift-giving and receiving by judges, which even today do not have definite limits, as found in Islamic and Ottoman law, in order to shed light on possible regulations that could be made in this regard.