This book presents the transliterated and edited Ottoman Turkish text of Ahmet Ağaoğlu’s (1869-1939) lecture notes on Constitutional Law and discusses them in their historical and intellectual context.

This book presents the transliterated and edited Ottoman Turkish text of Ahmet Ağaoğlu’s (1869-1939) lecture notes on Constitutional Law and discusses them in their historical and intellectual context. Ağaoğlu contributed to the drafting of the 1924 Turkish Constitution and later taught courses in the Ankara Law School established in 1925. Ağaoğlu’s lectures, delivered in the first and second academic years of the Law School (1925-6 and 1926-7), include comparative discussions on the structure of the state, separation of powers, sovereignty, and liberties. This book is aimed at making these lecture notes, so far only available to those who can read Ottoman Turkish, accessible to a larger audience. For readers who know Ağaoğlu through his work after the 1930s—that is, the period of the Serbest Fırka (Liberal Party) onwards—the lecture notes offer an opportunity to reassess his intellectual contribution. In addition, the reader will find the notes highly interesting in the political context of the time marked by the stern security measures employed under the auspices of Takrir-i Sükûn Law (Law on the Maintenance of Order). This book is also an important source for those who would like to improve their knowledge of the 1924 Turkish Constitution in that it includes a compilation of the proposal of the Constitutional Commission, the text of the 1924 Constitution, the 1945 and the 1952 versions. The current volume will benefit audiences interested in constitutional law, history of Turkish law, history of higher education, political science and the early Republican period in Türkiye .

Asst. Prof. Dr. Boğaç Erozan is a faculty member of the Department of International Relations at İstanbul Bilgi University.