Osmanlı Döneminde Modern Teknolojik Gelişmelerin Hukuki Temelleri: Telgraf Örneği

Abstract

Information technologies progress very fast, while regulation for IT developments is too slow. Information technologies have international positive impact on societies, governments, or companies, but it can also cause harm. To prevent the harm and make the IT process functional, information technologies and their impacts need to be regulated. Since legislation is a time-consuming process, yet information technologies develop very quickly, legislations lag behind technology. As the technology continues to develop rapidly, the existing regulations do not constitute a solution to negative impact of technologic developments. There is no sufficient analyses on how to regulate IT. Nonetheless, what kind of a method has been followed in terms of legal basis of the modern technologies in history, what kind of problems have been encountered and the historical solution mechanisms for these issues have not been analyzed. This study aims to propose solutions for today's issues on legislating information technologies with the analyses on measures subject to telegraph, the initiative of IT on communication. This study analyses the legal basis of the telegraph, which can be argued as the basis of information technologies in communication. Stating that the Ottoman Empire was the first state sent the first certificate to Morse for invention of the telegraph, the first part examines history of telegraph. Afterwards it assesses the discussions in international agreements on telegraph. It also latinized the arrangements on historical Ottoman documents and discussed those measures. In the last section, this paper investigates Ottoman parliamentary minutes (1324-1336), and analyses the parliamentary negotiations on the telegraph in detail. In this context, this dissertation explores and assesses discussions subject to telegraph, an information technology that reduces the communication process that lasts for months to seconds. It investigates telegraph and relevant measures in history, in order to propose solutions to the issues on regulating information technologies.