Prof. Dr. Bertil Emrah Oder (Koç University): The Rule of Law and Democratic Degradation: Reflections on Europe and Turkey

Current Research on Turkish Law

  • Date: May 16, 2022
  • Time: 02:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Location: online
About the Speaker:
Bertil Emrah Oder is the Dean and Professor of Constitutional Law at Koç University Law School, received her Ph.D. from University of Cologne (Germany). She holds the UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality and Sustainable Development. Professor Oder’s research focuses on human rights, comparative constitutional law, gender studies, European Union law. She is a full member of the Science Academy Turkey and All European Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), Science and Ethics WG. She has served as an international consultant of UNWomen and Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and published five books, dozens of articles, editorials and book chapters on various subjects in public law with a focus on constitutionalism, gender equality, human rights, and judicial review. She has been selected as Henry Morris Lecturer of international and comparative law in 2012 (Chicago-Kent School of Law). She holds various scholarly awards including the Outstanding Research Award (Koç University, 2011) and the Defender of Constitutional Democracy (Global Summit on Constitutionalism, 2020). She was an academic consultant of the Constitutional Conciliation Committee (Turkey), 2011-2013. She served as the co-president of the Law Schools Global League, 2015-2018. Fluent in English, German and Turkish. She also holds LLB and MA/LLM degrees from the University of Istanbul and Marmara University (Turkey).

About the Topic:
The rule of law under democratic degradation offers an ever-growing research agenda in the field of legal studies in the last ten years. Different from conventional settings of democratic regression and autocratic "rule by law" structures, the developments in Poland, Hungary, and Turkey represent complex modalities of constitutional instrumentalism by deploying a repertoire of subtle strategies regarding the subversion of rule of law culture. The incapacities of the Council of Europe and the EU have been a matter of dispute and criticism as to the ongoing decline regarding normative guarantees of liberal democracies. The topic addresses the nexus of the rule of law and democracy in Europe with a particular emphasis on Turkey and European institutions to critically assess the current state of the rule of law.

About the Seminar Series:
The new seminar series “Current Research on Turkish Law” regularly invites outstanding scholars and practitioners working on different topics of Turkish private law to present and discuss their findings. The seminar series particularly aims to create a platform where both international researchers interested in Turkish law and Turkish researchers working on comparative law can come together and exchange scholarly ideas. Participation is open to all interested students and researchers.
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