Judicial Review of Decisions Regarding Citizenship in Turkish Law

Abstract

According to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights everyone has the “right to a nationality”. It should be noted that citizenship issues are related to a State‟s sovereignty; that is why a state determines under its own law who are its citizens. This does not mean that States have unlimited power regarding citizenship. As one of the necessities of the rule of law is the judicial review of actions and acts of administration, decisions regarding Turkish citizenship as administrative acts are subject to judicial review. This paper focuses on citizenship as a legal bond between individual and State, the basic principles of Turkish law regarding citizenship, an understanding of the administrative appreciation regarding citizenship and the judicial control of decisions which lead to the acquisition and loss of Turkish citizenship.