Commercial law is the branch of law that applies to commercial transactions and businesses. Commercial law is mostly related to the law of obligations, enforcement and bankruptcy law and civil law. The subheadings within the scope of commercial law are; Commercial Enterprise Law, Negotiable Instruments Law, Corporate Law, Maritime Trade Law, Insurance Law and Transportation Law.

Main Features of Commercial Law;

• Commercial Law is a sub-branch of private law.
• In Commercial Law, rules regarding customs and traditions are observed.
• Formalization is important in commercial law practices in order to establish standards.
• The principle of equality of the parties has limited application in Commercial Law.

In the Turkish Commercial Code, a commercial enterprise is defined as an enterprise in which activities are carried out continuously and independently, aiming to provide income at a level exceeding the limit set for a tradesman enterprise. The main topics of Commercial Enterprise Law are; commercial enterprise, provisions and consequences of being a merchant, establishment of commercial enterprise, transfer of commercial enterprise, pledge of commercial enterprise, provisions regarding unfair competition and current account.

The subject of Company Law is companies, which are organizations that operate for profit. According to the law, a company is a community formed by two or more persons combining their property and labor in accordance with a contract. Our legislation defines 5 different types of companies. These are

• Joint Stock Company
• Limited Company
• Cooperative Company
• Limited Company
• Collective Company.
  
  

Company Law includes a set of rules regarding the establishment, operation and termination of these companies. It consists of provisions regulated between Article 124 and Article 644 of the Turkish Commercial Code.

According to the Turkish Commercial Code, negotiable instruments are of 3 types: checks, bills of exchange and policies. These documents are also referred to as bills of exchange. The Law on Negotiable Instruments basically regulates the issuance and transfer of checks, bills and policies, and the validity conditions required for them to qualify as bills of exchange. All these regulations are regulated between Articles 645 and 849 of the Law.

The answer to the question of what is Maritime Commercial Law is the set of rules regarding maritime trade within national and international commercial law. The main topics of Maritime Commercial Law are ship and ship registration procedures, flag, ship ownership, captain’s rights and obligations, overseas sales contracts, freight contracts, bill of lading, carriage of passengers and goods, common avarage, collision and assistance and ship pledge. It consists of the provisions between Articles 931 and 1400 of the Turkish Commercial Code.

Insurance Law is a sub-branch of Commercial Law that examines the rights and obligations related to insurance contracts in which the insurer undertakes to cover the damages that can be measured in money within certain conditions and the insured undertakes to pay a premium in return. The subjects of Insurance Law are basically; the establishment of insurance contracts, the provisions and consequences of insurance contracts, types of insurance contracts, insurance activities, persons and institutions engaged in insurance, and the supervision of the execution of insurance activities. The provisions on Insurance Law are regulated between Articles 1401 and 1520 of the Law.

Transportation Law

The subject matter of the Transportation Law is basically the transportation of goods and passengers. The provisions related to this sub-branch are included between Articles 850 and 930 of the Code.

Commercial Litigation

Not every case related to a commercial enterprise may be heard in the commercial courts of first instance. The conditions for a case to be considered a commercial case are regulated in Article 4 of the Turkish Commercial Code.

Absolute commercial cases are the cases specified in Article 4 of the law and the cases regulated as commercial cases in some special laws, regardless of whether the parties have the title of merchant or not and regardless of whether the subject of the dispute is related to commercial business within the scope of the law. These issues are regulated in the law as follows;

Civil lawsuits and non-contentious judicial proceedings arising from matters related to the commercial business of both parties, and regardless of whether the parties are merchants or not;

a) Under the Turkish Commercial Code,

b) Turkish Civil Code on those engaged in the business of lending against pledge

Articles 962 to 969,

c) In accordance with the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098

202 and 203 on acquisitions and mergers and reorganizations of different undertakings, competition

444 and 447 on prohibition, 487 and 501 on publishing contracts, 515 and 519 on letters of credit and credit orders, 532 and 545 on commission contracts, 547 to 554 on commercial representatives, commercial agents and other merchant assistants, 555 and 560 on remittances, 561 and 580 on custody contracts,

d) Intellectual property law legislation,

e) In specially regulated provisions regarding stock exchanges, exhibitions, fairs and markets, warehouses and other places for trade,

f) Civil lawsuits and non-contentious judicial proceedings arising from the matters stipulated in the regulations on banks, other credit institutions, financial institutions and money lending business shall be deemed to be commercial lawsuits and non-contentious judicial proceedings of a commercial nature.

The commercial lawsuits regulated in the special laws mentioned in the article of the Law are mainly as follows:

• Civil lawsuits arising from Article 99 of the Cooperatives Law,
• Bankruptcy cases,
• Cases related to concordat,
• Lawsuits arising from the Commercial Enterprise Pledge Law,
• Disciplinary penalties given to chamber and stock exchange members,
• Lawsuits arising from financial leasing agreements.

According to the Turkish Commercial Code, in order for a lawsuit to be considered as a relative commercial lawsuit, both parties must be merchants and the dispute to be subject to the lawsuit must be related to the commercial enterprise of both parties. Accordingly, if the subject matter of the dispute is related to the commercial enterprise of only one party, this lawsuit cannot be considered as a proportional commercial lawsuit. The exceptions to this are lawsuits arising from remittances, vedas and rights related to intellectual and artistic works.

Pursuant to Article 5 of the Turkish Commercial Code, unless otherwise provided, the court assigned to hear all commercial lawsuits and commercial non-contentious judicial proceedings, regardless of the value or amount of the subject matter of the lawsuit, is the commercial court of first instance. In places where there is no commercial court of first instance, the civil courts of first instance are the court in charge.

As a rule, as in other courts of first instance, the written procedure is applied in commercial cases. The issue of jurisdiction is a matter of public order, and the appointment of a different court as the competent court by the parties is not legally valid.

However, in cases where there is no strict jurisdiction rule regarding the dispute between the parties, the parties may determine the competent court with an agreement between them. For example, according to the general jurisdiction rules in the Code of Civil Procedure, the lawsuit must be filed in the place of residence of the defendant, but the parties may agree that the lawsuit may be filed in the commercial courts of first instance in the place of residence of the plaintiff.

Commercial Law Article 5 of the Turkish Commercial Code stipulates that among the commercial lawsuits specified in other laws and Article 4 of the TCC, it is a condition of filing a lawsuit to apply to a mediator before filing a lawsuit for receivables and compensation claims, the subject matter of which is the payment of a sum of money. In this case, in disputes regarding commercial lawsuits, it is mandatory to apply for mediation before filing a lawsuit. In the event that the lawsuit is filed directly without applying to the mediator, it will be decided to dismiss the lawsuit due to the lack of a cause of action.