Statute

Avrupa devletlerinin bir araya gelip bir birlik oluşturmaları fikri on dokuzuncu yüzyıldan itibaren tartışılmıştır. Fakat II. Dünya Savaşı'nın bitimine kadar Avrupalılar, bu düşüncelerini gerçekleş-tirememişlerdir. Bunun en önemli sebebi büyük devletlerin birbirleriyle yaptıkları güç ve hâkimiyet mücadelesidir. Avrupalılar II. Dünya Savaşı'ndan sonra hem benzer felaketleri bir daha yaşamamak hem de Avrupa'da gücünü gün geçtikçe hissettiren Sovyetler Birliğine karşı daha güçlü olabilmek için çeşitli örgütler kurmuşlardır. Avrupa Konseyi de Avrupa birliği fikri etrafında kurulan bu örgütlerin en önemlilerinden birisidir. Savunma ve güvenlik konularının dışında insan hakları, sosyal işler, eğitim, kültür, spor, gençlik, halk sağlığı, çevre, mimari miras, şehircilik, yerel ve bölgesel yönetimler, hukuk gibi alanlarda işbirliğini öngören örgüt, 5 Mayıs 1949'da on Avrupa devleti tarafından kurulmuştur. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Avrupa Konseyi kurulduktan yaklaşık üç ay sonra konseye davet edilmiş ve bu daveti kabul ederek 8 Ağustos 1949 tarihinde konseye kurucu üye sıfatıyla katılmıştır. Avrupa Konseyi Statüsü de 12 Aralık 1949 tarihinde Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi'nde kabul edilmiştir.


It is not a new idea that European states gather and form a union. This idea had been discussed since the nineteenth century. However, it was not until the end of World War II that Europeans realized their idea. The most important reason is the struggle for power and dominance that great powers on the continent were engaged in with each other. After World War II, Europeans set up several organizations both not to suffer similar disasters anymore and to become more powerful against the Soviet Union making its power felt in Europe day by day. The Council of Europe is one of the most important of such organizations founded around the idea of the European Union. This organization which stipulates cooperation in such areas human rights, social affairs, education, culture, sports, youth, public health, environmental, architectural heritage, urban planning, local and regional authorities, and law as well as defence and security was founded on 5 May 1949 by ten European states. The Republic of Turkey was invited to the Council of Europe about three months after its foundation and by accepting this invitation participated in the Council as a founding member. The Statute of the Council of Europe was adopted on 12 Decem-ber 1949 by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The plots of Billy Budd and The Bonfire of the Vanities are organized entirely around a lawsuit. In The Pickwick Papers the trial is only a part, though an important one, of a series of related adventures in which the main characters of the novel participate. In the three novels there is a trial in which the accused is found guilty, although he is actually innocent. In The Posthumous Papers of the Club Pickwick, the author’s main purpose is to present the operation of the legal system, in which the modus operandi of unscrupulous lawyers, who rely only on cheating and deceiving methods, is atthe beginning of and determines the outcome of the lawsuit. In Billy Budd, an innocent is sentenced to death in order to preserve a supposed higher interest: the common good. In The Bonfire of the Vanities, political factors, personal interests, resentments and other worldly elements determine the outcome of the trial. In the three cases, the watchmaking mechanism that a lawsuit appears to be is completely overcome by factors outside it.