A court in Paris, Brussels or Berlin that has to apply Turkish law to a succession, a marriage or a contract can ask Türkiye what that law provides, through an official channel rather than through an expert opinion. The instrument is the European Convention on Information on Foreign Law, opened for signature in London in 1968 (ETS 062). Two documents cross the border on this route, the request and the reply, and each has its own language rule. The second one surprises many practitioners: the answer from Türkiye arrives in Turkish.
In force since 1976, with an Additional Protocol
Türkiye signed the Convention on 7 June 1968 and it entered into force for Türkiye on 20 March 1976. The Additional Protocol (ETS 097), in force for Türkiye since 2 March 2005, widens the scope: Chapter I extends the Convention to the field of criminal law, and Chapter II to requests made in the context of legal aid and legal advice. The Council of Europe records show no language declaration by Türkiye, which is unsurprising, since the Convention leaves no room for one.
Only a judicial authority may use the channel
Article 3(1) provides that a request for information shall always emanate from a judicial authority, even when it has not been drawn up by that authority, and that it may be made only where proceedings have actually been instituted. A party, a law firm or a translation office cannot open this channel in its own name; the request is the court’s request, prepared for the court’s signature. Outside that, the Protocol’s second chapter adds a narrow opening for legal aid and legal advice files. What reaches a translator on this route is therefore a court document and its annexes.
The agency in Ankara
By its declaration of 31 August 1976 Türkiye designated the Ministry of Justice, under Article 2, as both receiving and transmitting agency. In the declaration of 1 December 2004 on Article 4 of the Additional Protocol the Ministry’s directorate general for international law and foreign relations was confirmed as transmitting agency; that unit is today the Directorate General for Foreign Relations and EU Affairs. A request from abroad reaches the Turkish courts and institutions through that one address.
The request goes in Turkish
The first sentence of Article 14(1) has the request for information and its annexes drawn up in the language, or in one of the official languages, of the requested State, or accompanied by a translation into that language. For a request addressed to Türkiye the language is Turkish, and the annexes follow the request. Article 14(2) allows two or more Contracting Parties to depart from that paragraph as between themselves. Türkiye’s own courts work under the same rule in reverse: the circular on the application of the Convention has a Turkish court prepare its request and annexes in the language of the requested State, or with a translation into it, in two sets sent through the Ministry.
The reply comes in Turkish
The second sentence of Article 14(1) settles the other direction: the reply is in the language of the requested State. An answer from Türkiye is therefore in Turkish, just as an answer from France is in French. Nothing in the Convention obliges Türkiye to reply in English. If the answer is to serve in the file of a court that does not read Turkish, the translation is a need of that court’s own procedure, not a step the Convention provides for, and the Convention does not say who arranges it. The same applies to the follow-up: under the Explanatory Report (para. 45), Article 14 covers the supplementary information provided for in Article 13, so a reply by the requesting body to a request for additional information is translated into the language of the requested State.
Costs: the reply itself is free
The answer itself is free. Under Article 15(1) the reply entails no charges or expenses except those referred to in Article 6(3), and those are borne by the State from which the request emanates. Article 6(3) covers the case where the reply is to be prepared by a private body or by a lawyer: the requesting authority’s consent to the cost is obtained first. The Convention has no article on translation costs, and because Article 14(1) ties the request to the language of the requested State, the translation of the request stays on the requesting side.
Which States are bound
According to Council of Europe records the Convention entered into force for Switzerland on 20 November 1970, France on 11 July 1972, Belgium on 17 January 1974, Germany on 19 March 1975, Luxembourg on 15 December 1977, Morocco on 20 September 2013 and Monaco on 2 December 2017, among some forty-seven parties. The United States and Canada are not parties, so a court there cannot use this channel towards Türkiye. Acte Tercüme translates a court’s request for information and its annexes into Turkish, and a Turkish reply on the content of Turkish law into English or French for the file it is going into.