Toplumsal Düzenin İnşası ve Korunmasında Ceza Hukukunun Rolü

Abstract

Throughout the process of transition from the tribal rules produced by humans living in communities in primitive societies to the legal system of the modern state, various views have been developed regarding the nature of law, primarily under the two headings of natural law and positive law. This thesis adopts approaches that neither base the source and content of law on transcendent elements nor evaluate it solely according to normative validity criteria. In this study, law and legal norms are interpreted using a dialectical materialist and political economy methodology and are accepted as concepts that can be examined in light of given social and economic conditions. Law enacted by legitimate political authority is shaped in accordance with the demands and characteristics of the sovereign to whom it owes its validity. In this context, the study argues that a legal system that can be applied independently and impartially under equal conditions for everyone and that serves the interests of the entire society cannot exist in class societies, and that norms have a class character. Criminal law, which is the area where this claim can be most clearly confirmed, therefore forms the focus of this thesis. The function of criminal law is often expressed in doctrine as the protection of social order. The “social order” referred to here is the existing mode of production, production relations, and the social relations produced by this economic system. In this sense, the study first examines different modes of production, the legal structures associated with these modes, and the relationship between law and political/economic structures. Subsequently, the role of criminal law as both an ideological and repressive apparatus is examined, and from this, the class character of criminal norms is revealed. In the final section, contrary to the claims of bourgeois ideologists, it is argued that criminal norms do not have a class-neutral character but are, on the contrary, one of the most effective tools of the ruling class. This conclusion is supported by various cases examined in light of the class instrumentalist perspective. The cases examined in the study, involving organizations such as the TKP, DİSK, and TİP, show that these organizations' opportunities to engage in trade union activities and/or politics have been severely restricted by law. The fundamental approach revealed by the identification of the instrumentalization of the cases is that, like all legal norms, criminal norms also have a class character. However, the study also argues that in a classless society, it is possible to speak of a criminal law that is “in the interest of everyone.