Coordinator & Key Staff Members

Dr. Bugra is the module coordinator of ‘Insurance Law’ which has received the ‘Learning and Teaching Award’ in 2016 and 2017 at Koç University. She also acts as Director of Dr. Nusret-Semahat Arsel International Business Law Implementation and Research Center (‘NASAMER’) and as Assistant Professor in Transport and Insurance Law. The scope of the module is designed around the scope of the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL) which Dr. Bugra has been teaching since 2015 and contains references, where necessary, to similarities and divergences between this set of rules, and Turkish law and Common law principles. Dr. Bugra is the receiver of 2018 European Commission Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Module Grant, 2018 AIDA Europe Conference Best Paper Prize, 2016 Science Academy (Bilim Akademisi) Award, Koç University Outstanding Faculty Award (December 2016) and Modern Law Review funding (2012). She has also acted as National Reporter for AIDA on New Technologies (Autonomous Vehicles and Robots - Cyber Risks - New Technologies and Insurance Process); contributed to the book ‘Marine Insurance Legislation’ (2014) and is the author of the book ‘Insurance Law Implications of Delay in Maritime Transport’ (2017), both published from Informa law from Routledge. She has contributed to reports on insurance submitted to the European Commission and the House of Lords (UK) committees which were subsequently published on the relevant websites of these institutions. Dr. Bugra is the main responsible person under the proposed module and will deliver 35 hours of lecture on PEICL.

Prof. Merkin QC is a Member of the Board drafting the Principles of Reinsurance Contract Law (PRICL). This is an initiative inspired by the project group “Restatement of European Insurance Contract Law“, which had led to the publication of the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL). In 2015 he acted as Consultant to the European Commission on the revision of the Insurance Block Exemption Regulation. He is also a Queen’s Honorary Counsel, the Vice-President of AIDA, Professor of Law at University of Exeter, author of several works on reinsurance and insurance where EU law was discussed in detail, and acts as editor and co-editor of leading journals on commercial and insurance law. He has particularly taught on EU Motor Insurance Law and published ‘Law of Motor Insurance’ from Sweet & Maxwell in 2015 which provides a comprehensive account of the EC Motor Insurance Directive. He has received several honorary titles from a number of universities worldwide. Prof. Merkin QC will be responsible of a 3 hour lecture in the module to introduce the students to PRICL and to highlight the possible dynamics of competition between reinsurance markets in the world (including the EU) should PRICL become applicable.

Prof. Unan is a Presidential Council Member of AIDA; Chairman of the Consumer Protection and Dispute Resolution Working Party of AIDA; former President of the Turkish Insurance Law Association (TILA) (2004-2008) and currently Vice President; Professor at Galatasaray University, and permanent Legal Consultant for leading Turkish insurance companies and banks. He is the organiser of the event ‘Precautionary Measures: Clauses requiring the policyholder or the insured, before the insured event occurs, to perform or not to perform certain acts (PEICL 4:101)’ and the joint organiser of ‘Unification of European Insurance Law’ (2011) together with NASAMER of Koç University Law School where the drafters of PEICL had presented along with Turkish insurance law scholars on salient issues of PEICL. His works contain comparative perspectives with EU law and particularly PEICL, and he will deliver a 3 hour lecture on precautionary measures under PEICL and Turkish law.

Dr. Kalafatoglu is acting as Assistant Professor at Koç University Law School since 2016. He obtained his LLM degree from Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University where he was a member of the Lynxlex research group on E.U. Law (Sept. 2011 – Feb. 2012); and his Ph.D from Paris-Est Créteil University where he took part as Research Assistant on the Vademecum Project on E.U. Law, Module Jean Monnet (July – Sept. 2011, Feb. – May 2012). He has also served as Legal Case Manager at the World Intellectual Property Organization where he administered more than 280 cases in English, French and Turkish. The content of his teaching materials at Koç University is prepared in a comparative perspective with an analysis of the EU law and relevant judicial decisions. His research also encompasses private international law principles as applicable in the EU and his Ph.D thesis entitled “Arbitrability in the field of Industrial Property, a study on international arbitration” which received ‘Laureate of the honorary price H. Capitant of Chancellerie des Universités de Paris’ in 2016 will be published from l’Harmattan. Dr. Kalafatoglu will be responsible of a 3 hour seminar in the module to introduce the students to the general framework of the private international law rules applicable to insurance contracts in the EU and its comparison with Turkish law principles.

Dr. Celebi obtained her LLM and PhD degrees (summa cum laude) from University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne in contract law where she studied with full scholarship. She also worked at the same institution as Research and Teaching Assistant on various areas of civil law whereby she acquired a comparative approach to law in a European jurisdiction. This motivated her to produce publications both on French and Turkish contract laws in French and Turkish languages. She is a member of the France based “Association Henri Capitant des Amis de la Culture Juridique Française” and conducts comparative private law studies on the basis of, inter alia, the Principles of European Contract Law (PECL) and UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. She will take part in HOPINEU team by delivering a 3 hour seminar on the project of PECL.

As an expert in comparative constitutional law and notably on human rights protection in fundamental Charters, her contribution to the module will be through the delivery of a 3 hour seminar to all Koç University Law School students having an interest in insurance discrimination based on gender by introducing the students to the concept of discrimination in general as perceived in the EU. Dr. Scotti has also experience in taking part in Jean Monnet activities as she previously acted as Lecturer at the Jean Monnet Summer School “Parliamentary Democracy in Europe”, Department of Political Science, LUISS ‘Guido Carli’, Rome, Italy; and as Lecturer at the Jean Monnet Winter School on “The Parliaments of Europe in Democracy Promotion and Constitutional Transitions” at the same institution. She is the 2018 awardee of Koç University Learning and Teaching (KOLT) Innovation Grant and purports to implement her innovative teaching ideas within the context of the insurance discrimination seminar. She has also contributed to edited works on Türkiye’s EU accession process.