International Connections

BİLGİ Faculty of Law has placed great importance on international connections and academic collaborations since its establishment. On one hand, thanks to its ties with foreign law faculties, renowned academics participate in lectures at our Faculty and give seminars in English. On the other hand, numerous Erasmus agreements encourage our students to go to law faculties across Europe as exchange students. Under the Erasmus program, BİLGİ Law students have the opportunity to study for one or two semesters at 35 distinguished European universities with which the Faculty has agreements.

Thanks to a collaboration initiated with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since 2011, our students have had the opportunity to participate in courses offered by WIPO and conducted partially online by instructors from the BİLGİ Faculty of Law, as well as to obtain a joint WIPO-BİLGİ certificate in the field of intellectual property law.

BİLGİ is also a member of the “Pan-European Seal Network.” The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), headquartered in Alicante, Spain, has established a network of universities that provide postgraduate education in intellectual property law. Considering its expertise in intellectual property law education at the master’s level and the work of BILFIM in this field, BİLGİ was accepted into this network as the only university outside the European Union. Together with the European Patent Office (EPO), headquartered in Munich, Germany, EUIPO organizes a paid internship program each year for graduates of member universities of the Pan-European Seal Network. Istanbul Bilgi University is the only institution from Türkiye included in this program, which offers a one-year internship opportunity at either EUIPO or EPO.

Our Faculty has also proven its expertise in the field of international trade and established strong international connections in this area. BİLGİ Faculty of Law is one of 21 academic institutions worldwide that collaborate with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to provide technical assistance and training aimed at enhancing the commercial capacities of countries (please click). ). Since 2010, this collaboration has made it possible to organize Regional Trade Policy Training Programs in Istanbul for foreign trade bureaucrats and experts from Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus (CEECAC) countries. These programs are organized jointly by the WTO, the BİLGİ Faculty of Law, and the Turkish Ministry of Trade. The fifth edition of this important event was held in the summer of 2014. As a significant geopolitical outcome of this long-standing collaboration for both Türkiye and the region, Istanbul Bilgi University was selected for the WTO Chairs Programme (please click). Dr. Pınar Artıran from BİLGİ Faculty of Law represents Türkiye in this program, which aims to support academic studies on international trade in developing and least-developed countries. This project of Istanbul Bilgi University, awarded the title of "WTO Chair" by the WTO, is carried out by the Research Center for International Trade Law and Arbitration, established within the Faculty of Law in 2015. Please click for more detailed information.

Our Faculty launched Türkiye’s first joint diploma master’s program in “Turkish-German Economic Law” in 2010 in collaboration with the Faculty of Law at the University of Cologne, one of Germany’s most prestigious law faculties. Students participating in the program earn a joint LL.M. degree after studying one semester at Cologne University and one semester at Istanbul Bilgi University. Please click for more detailed information.

Additionally, in 2015, the Faculty partnered with the Swiss law firm Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd. to bring the “Istanbul International Construction Law Conferences” project to life. This project aims to bring together professionals from the construction industry, lawyers specializing in international construction, and academics to discuss and reflect on complex and problematic topics in the sector. The project includes three main activities: organizing conferences, publishing research, and providing legal training. Please click for more detailed information.

BİLGİ Faculty of Law is also highly sensitive about enabling its faculty members to teach abroad and engage internationally. To date, our instructors have been invited to teach and conduct block seminars at prestigious institutions worldwide, including Bucerius Law School (Hamburg, Germany), the University of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt University (USA), LL.M. in International Trade Law Turin (Italy), Bern and St. Gallen Universitaet (Switzerland), Alexander von Humboldt Universitaet (Berlin, Germany), and the University of Melbourne (Australia).

The Faculty also hosts international seminars featuring contributions from participants worldwide. One notable example is the Applied Competition Law Seminars, organized under the coordination of Professor Dr. Kerem Cem Sanlı at the Competition Law and Policy Research Centre. These seminars bring together practitioners and academics from different legal systems, providing participants with in-depth insights into Turkish and comparative competition law practices. Please click to access the seminar program held in the Spring 2024 semester.