Prof. Dr. K. Berk Kapancı (MEF University): UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (DAPL): An Ideal Model for Turkish Law?

About the Speaker:

Prof. Dr. K. Berk Kapancı graduated from Galatasaray University (Istanbul) Faculty of Law in 2006. He then completed İstanbul Bilgi University Business Law Master Program in 2009 with his master thesis titled “Statutory Liability for Non-Conforming Goods and Contractual Guarantees in Sales Contracts”, and Galatasaray University Private Law Doctoral Program in 2013 with the doctoral thesis titled “Relations Between Debtors in the Plurality of Debtors”. Kapancı worked as a teaching and research assistant at Istanbul Bilgi University (Faculty of Law, Department of Civil Law) between 2007-2014 and he has been working as a full-time lecturer at MEF University (Faculty of Law, Department of Civil Law) since 2015. He became an associate professor in 2018 with his book titled "Compensation of Damages due to Intentional Immoral Acts (TCO Art. 49 Para. 2)” and his other publications, and became a full-professor in 2023 with his book titled “Assignment of Claims (TCO Art. 183-194) – Commentary” and his other publications. Kapancı, who is an active member in professional organizations such as the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL), the European Law Institute (ELI) & ELI Turkish Hub, L’Association Henri Capitant des amis de la culture juridique française, La Société de Législation Comparée (SLC), the Society of European Contract Law (SECOLA), focuses his research specifically on Law of Obligations, Law of Property, Law of Guarantees and Law and Technology. Moreover, he is a member of the board of trustees of the Rona Serozan Comparative Law Foundation

About the Topic:

In the last decade, it is obvious that there is an increasing global interest to the digital assets. It is also the case in Türkiye, with a constantly growing dynamic market of crypto assets (a sub-category of digital assets). Lately in 2024, Turkish legislator enacted a law on crypto assets bringing amendments to the Capital Market Law. The said amendments are of regulatory nature and mainly address the qualification, duties and liabilities of the crypto asset service providers such as exchange platforms and custodians. They do not address property law issues, which will probably be a next step in the legislative process in the near future, in line with the requirements of legal certainty, as even the legal nature of these assets is already highly debated. In this respect, the UNIDROIT Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law (DAPL) seem to offer a good model.

The DAPL Principles providing soft law rules on the topic of digital assets from a contract and property law perspective are recently adopted in 2023. In total, the DAPL Principles consists of seven different sections (i- Scope and Definitions, ii- Private International Law, iii- Control and Transfer, iv- Custody, v- Secured Transactions, vi- Procedural Law including Enforcement, vii- Insolvency) and nineteen principles. These principles, which are neutral in terms of technology, jurisdiction and implementation organization within domestic laws, intend to bring legal certainty and provide guidance regarding the fundamental issues of property law and some legal transactions such as custody agreements and secured transactions relating to digital assets.

Accordingly, the aim of this presentation is to discuss the compatibility and the possible impact of some of the key aspects of these principles -particularly those related to substantive law- within the existing Turkish property law system, while also providing insights for a potential legislative activity.

About the Seminar Series:

The 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.