Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinance (Meclis-i Vala-yi Ahkam-i Adliyye) and Its Function of Being Preliminary to the First Parliament

The consultative assemblies were far from an institutionalized assembly that implemented and followed up reforms. They gained importance with a decrease in the influence of the Imperial Council. Therefore, to monitor the reforms in the military field and to serve the Prime Ministry as advisory committees, the Supreme Council of the Military and the Supreme Council of the Government were established. In addition to these two assemblies, the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinance, assembled in the palace and therefore chaired by Mahmud II, was also established. In this assembly, internal, external, financial, and military works were renegotiated, issues were arranged to be changed or corrected, and then presented to the sultan. The Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinance played a significant role in the legislative and in the judiciary since the discontinuation of the Imperial Council and the failure of the consultative assemblies to fill its void although it was established for the purpose of monitoring and carrying out the Tanzimat reforms. However, it is obvious that it had a different structure from that of the Imperial Council, which was its predecessor. It was not a representative structure; rather, it was a transitional institution between the Council (Divan) and Western-style parliament in terms of its structure and the tasks it performed.