Osmanlı Son Dönem Hukuk Literatüründe Doğal Hukuk-Pozitif Hukuk Ayrımı: Mehmet Servet’in Mukaddime-i İlm-i Hukuk Adlı Eseri

The distinction between natural and positive law is used to show the sources of law. In other words, this distinction is about the difference between the law that is and the law that should be. This issue also found its place in the textbooks in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, when modern law schools were established. The paper aims to reveal the grounds, practices, and position of the said distinction by examining Mehmed Servet's introduction to the law book, especially due to his detailed explanations at that time. Mehmed Servet, who gave introductory law and criminal law lessons at the Mekteb-i Hukuk, prepared the book Mukaddime-i İlm-i Hukuk in the format of a textbook. In the textbook, the subject in question has been examined with the concepts of Hukuk-ı Tabiye and Hukuk-ı Mevzua. Similarly, besides Mehmed Servet, the textbooks of İbrahim Hakkı Pasha and Munif Pasha are introductory law, and the monographs of Mahmud Esad, Kazım and Sadullah-Vartan shed light on this field. However, since it is an introductory work to law, it has been preferred because it has a clear and clear expression, contains more detailed explanations than its counterparts, and does not deal with the issue only in a religious dimension, Mehmed Servet's work is important. In this context, we tried to express comparatively the basis of the distinction in question and its reflections on practice, on the one hand, and the analysis from the perspective of today's understanding of the law, on the other hand, within the understanding of the period itself.