IMPACT OF COVID-19
Main factors such as the uncontrolled increase in population, environmental pollution concerning land, air, sea and even space areas, ozon layer depletion problem and international arms production race, increase concerns about the physical future of our planet, “the World”.
It is understood that the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic is largely, if not completely, the direct result of the above-mentioned unfavorable factors that our planet has been experiencing, especially in the last 150-200 years.
In order for positive changes to occur in this regard, human societies on our planet and their administrative systems need to follow a conscious environmental protection policy and try to protect the world from worse disasters.
This pandemic should be perceived as a kind of serious warning for the future of the world, and this erroneous course should be abandoned without delay and a healthier lifestyle should be returned under all aspects.
The Covid-19 pandemic is a huge health problem, but of the two consequent categories of problems, namely a) legal problems and b) economic and financial problems, the most important is the latter.
Almost all natural and legal persons in the world suffer and will continue to suffer negative consequences such as loss of earnings, damages, costs and expenses due to the spread of the pandemic.
In this context, States around the world will, with well-designed systems, seek to subsidize the losses of individuals and private entities that suffer the immeasurable economic consequences caused by the epidemic, as countries with more developed economies currently do.
The judicial system had to intervene and try to resolve disputes of a nature above all economic and financial, deriving also from relations of a legal nature, but the decisions and sentences handed down may not have a significant effect in remedying the especially financial problems arising from the impact of the epidemic, since in many cases, it would not be possible to execute these decisions due to the precarious economic situation of the contractors who lost the cases.
However, despite all these difficulties, if this epidemic continues to spread, the Judiciary system, as well as the various crisis management systems being employed, will play a very important role in providing the legal environment that will hopefully prevent deterioration of Justice all over the world.
In this respect, the Founder of Our Office Av. Prof. Dr. Yüksel Ersoy has prepared an article in Italian regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the tenancy agreements in Turkey, titled “Il Coronavirus e il Diritto delle Locazioni in Turchia”, Il Bollettino AIGLI, Luglio 2020, p. 18-20.
Regarding Our Office’s Activities
In order to ensure that the necessary rules are followed to protect against the Covid-19 pandemic and prevent its spread, we have started to implement distance meeting techniques such as Skype and Zoom instead of face-to-face meetings and attended meetings.
In cases of needs for joint evaluation and discussion of documents we are exceptionally organizing face to face meetings with clients with sensible distancing measures in place, taking advantage of large spaces of our Office building.
We have carried on working throughout the Covid-19 crisis after having taken all necessary precautions. Hearings at the courts have been postponed for a certain period and then were held as usual. Later on, some court hearings have been done remotely, based on the discretion of the judge.
While we wish this pandemic that shook the whole world to come to an end as soon as possible, we also predict that as a result of this experience, significant changes are occurring and will occur in all and every aspect of the social life.
In parallel with this, some unforeseen changes will be inevitable in legal systems all over the world and especially in civil, criminal and administrative proceedings.
Currently, the existence of UYAP has provided important opportunities for the application of the distance system in the submission of petitions, the notification of decisions, and attendance to the hearings and even if the epidemic disappears, it will be appropriate to further develop and implement this distance system. Our Office follows all these developments and avails itself of the opportunities that this electronic system provides.
