Halil Cemaleddin Bey

Halil Cemâleddin Bey was born on 17 July 1876 and belonged to the Müftüzâde family of İnebolu. Rising in the legal profession, he became First President of the Dersaadet Court of First Instance. The courts of first instance were part of the nizamiye courts established after the Tanzimat, while the Dersaadet Court of First Instance was one of the central institutions of the Istanbul judiciary.

Halil Cemâleddin Bey taught the Land Code at the Mekteb-i Mülkiye. The Land Code was one of the fundamental texts governing land relations in the Ottoman system, especially state land, inheritance, possession and ownership. His work Telhîs-i Ahkâm-ı Arazi was among the studies that turned his teaching and legal knowledge in this field into a textbook. Sources indicate that the work was published in 1913 together with Tevfik Tarık.

The most notable of his legal writings was Ecânibin Memâlik-i Osmaniye’de Hâiz Bulundukları İmtiyâzât-ı Adliye, prepared together with Hrand Asadur Efendi. This extensive work on the judicial privileges held by foreigners in Ottoman lands first appeared as a long series of articles in Cerîde-i Adliye and was then published as a book in 1915. The subject had special importance in the late Ottoman legal environment, where capitulations and the status of foreigners in Ottoman courts were intensely debated.

Halil Cemâleddin Bey died on 21 August 1920 and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.