Faculty of Law

The Closing Conference of the Project on the Evaluation and Elimination of Legal Uncertainties in the Digital Transformation of Joint Stock Companies was held on 21 April 2026 at the Conference Hall of the Turkish Competition Authority in Ankara.

The conference was organized within the scope of a TÜBİTAK 1001 project led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meltem Karatepe Kaya, a faculty member of the Department of Commercial Law at Istanbul Medeniyet University Faculty of Law.

The first session of the conference, which commenced with the opening speeches of Prof. Dr. Özcan Günergök, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Istanbul Medeniyet University, Ferhat Topçuoğlu, Vice President of the Turkish Competition Authority, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meltem Karatepe Kaya, addressed the topic “Digitalization in Joint Stock Companies: Institutional Perspectives.” The session, chaired by Yusuf Şahin, President of the 21st Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Appeal, featured presentations by Taner Erdoğan, President of the 14th Commercial Court of First Instance of Istanbul; Dr. Ahmet Can Balak, Deputy Director General of Domestic Trade at the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Türkiye; Selçuk Yılmaz, Deputy Head of the First Inspection and Enforcement Department of the Turkish Competition Authority; Zeynep Cantimur Kavaklı, Deputy Head of the Legal Department of the Capital Markets Board; and Dr. Murat Cangül, Member of the Board of Directors of Ziraat Katılım Bank. The speakers evaluated the impact of digitalization on company law, competition law, and capital markets law, as well as its transformative effects on corporate structure, audit mechanisms, and decision-making processes.

In the second session, chaired by Prof. Dr. Özcan Günergök, the project outputs were presented and evaluated by the project leader Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meltem Karatepe Kaya and project researchers Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatih Buğra Erdem and Assist. Prof. Dr. Ekrem Solak. In this context, the legal problem areas related to the digital transformation of joint stock companies were systematically identified, and solution proposals were discussed with the conference participants from a broad perspective.

In the closing session, the project outputs were evaluated by Burhan Kayatürk, Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye’s Committee on European Union Harmonization, and Prof. Dr. Cüneyt Yüksel, Chairman of the Justice Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, emphasizing the importance of enhancing legal predictability in the process of digital transformation. The closing of the conference, hosted by the Turkish Competition Authority, took place with the participation of Birol Küle.