The Nizamiye Courts or Regular Courts () were a secular court system introduced in the Ottoman Empire during the Tanzimat era. Their foundations were laid with the 1864 Provincial Regulations, and the system was formally established in 1879.: "In 1879, the Ottoman administration officially created the nizamiye court system. The foundations of this court system date back to the 1864 Provincial Regulations." They were created as an alternative to the existing sharia courts ().
The Nizamiye Courts drew much influence from French models at the time.Selçuk Akşin Somel. "Review of Ottoman Nizamiye Courts. Law and Modernity" (PDF). Sabancı Üniversitesi. p. 2. They were administered under the Ottoman Ministry of Justice. These courts enabled the further growth of legal pluralism within Ottoman jurisprudence. Although secular, the Mecelle (the Ottoman version of codified Sharia) was eventually applied to the courts.
History From 1839 onwards various legal changes were implemented in the Ottoman Empire with heavy French influence. For example, the penal code (in Turkish ceza kanunnamesi) from 1840 was revised in 1851 and later replaced by a French legal code.Findley, Carter V. Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity: A History, 1789-2007. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2010. The French legal code also determined the Ottoman legal codes of commerce (1850) and maritime commerce (1863). By the 1860s, secular Nizamiye Courts were introduced in order to enact this new form of legal practice. The Nizamiye Courts were first established in 1864 as a part of the extensive Tanzimat efforts meant to Westernize and modernize the Ottoman Empire. During this time period the Khedivial Law School was founded for the sake of training lawyers for the Nizamiye Courts.
William L. Cleveland, an American historian of the Middle East, writes
Out of this court system rose a duality within Ottoman legal practice. The Sharia Courts and Nizamiye Courts coexisted creating legal pluralism within the Empire. In some ways, this led to the slippery slope of increasing a lawyer's ability to choose within the legal sphere leading to corruption.
With regards to this pluralism, law professor Lee Epstein states that,
Structure The courts were based on French models and were European in style. Therefore, they contained a three-tier hierarchal arrangement. This system was extended to the local magistrate level with the final promulgation of the Mecelle, a civil code that regulated marriage, divorce, alimony, will, and other matters of personal status.
The three levels (dealing with commercial, criminal and civil cases): First level: the Courts of First Instance ( ), located in each kaza and sanjak's capital, each composed of a president ( ) and two judges. The tribunal in the sanjak's capital could receive appeals from any kaza's tribunal. Second level: the Courts of Appeals ( ), located in each vilayet's capital, each composed of a president ( ) and four judges. Third level: the Court of Cassation ( ), located in Istanbul.
See also Mecelle Sharia Legal pluralism
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