Dr Burcu Yüksel Ripley

Biography

Dr Burcu Yüksel Ripley is a Senior Lecturer and the Theme Coordinator for commercial law LLMs on international commercial law, international trade law and sustainability. She was the Director of the Centre for Commercial Law between 2020-2023.   

Burcu obtained her LLB and PhD in Private International Law from Turkey, and her LLM in International and Comparative Business Law from England. Before joining the University of Aberdeen, she worked at the leading Turkish university, Ankara, at the Department of Private International Law of the Law Faculty. She also practised law and worked at the Export Credit Bank of Turkey (Turk Eximbank) where she dealt with legal and practical aspects of international trade finance.  

Burcu has several publications on aspects of international trade and finance law, private international law, international payments, international commercial law and dispute resolution, law and technology (including digitalisation, distributed ledger technology/blockchain and digital assets in particular cryptocurrencies) and Turkish law. She has been involved in various internationally collaborative research projects. She regularly speaks at international conferences and acts as a referee for articles submitted to prestigious and internationally renowned academic journals. She has been appointed by courts in the UK and Turkey to give expert opinion evidence on private international law matters.

Burcu was a NERC Constructing a Digital Environment (CDE) Fellow of the Digital Environment Expert Network as part of the multidisciplinary NERC/UKRI ‘Constructing a Digital Environment’ Programme; a Special Rapporteur for the UK for the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL)’s General Report on ‘Cryptocurrencies: the impossible domestic law regime?’ (Asunción 2022 General Congress, Topic IX.C) and an Observer on the Committee on the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and Emerging Technologies of the Uniform Law Commission and the American Law Institute. 

Research Overview

Burcu's research interests are in the following areas:

• international trade and finance law
• private international law (international jurisdiction, applicable law and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil, commercial and family law matters),
• international payments
• international commercial law and dispute resolution,
• law and technology (including digitalisation, digital assets and in particular cryptocurrencies, distributed ledger technology and blockchain),
• Turkish law. 

Current Research

Burcu is currently researching on digitalisation in international trade, digital assets, distributed ledger technology and blockchain. She is particularly interested in conflict of laws and emerging technology. 

Funding and Grants

• December 2023- November 2024: Digital Assets in Scots Private Law: Innovating for the Future, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Research Workshops Grant (Position held: Principal Investigator), due to start in December 2023  
• 2021- present: Time to Become Digital in Law (DIGinLaw), funded by the European Commission, Erasmus+ Programme (Position held: Co-Investigator). 
• 2020- 2023: NERC Constructing a Digital Environment (CDE) Fellow of the Digital Environment Expert Network, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), NERC/UKRI ‘Constructing a Digital Environment’ Programme.
• 2014- 2016: Cross-Border Litigation in Europe: Private International Law Legislative Framework, National Courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUPILLAR), JUST/2013/JCIV/AG/4635, funded by the European Commission, Civil Justice Programme (Position held: Researcher).
• 2012- 2013: Cross-Border Litigation in Europe (series of workshops), EU Private International Law Research Network, funded by the European Commission, Jean Monnet Scheme (Position held: National Coordinator for Turkey).
  

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergraduate:

• LS2532 Private International Law
• LS401Q/LX401Q Private International Law of Commercial Law Honours
• LS451U/LS451U International Trade Law Honours (Course Coordinator)

Postgraduate:

• LS508A International Trade and Finance Law
• LS502K Comparative Contract Law for International Transactions
• LS5909 Professional Skills: International Trade Negotiation (Course Coordinator)
• LS503D/LS553D Financing of International Sales (online) (Course Coordinator)
• LS503B/LS553B International Sale of Goods (online)
• LS5811 Law, Business, Security: Petroleum Data Management

 Previously: 

• LS1520 Contract
• LS2032 Public International Law
• LS2536 Introduction to Comparative Law
• LS502Q Private International Law- Jurisdiction, Recognition & Enforcement
• LS5098 World Trade Organisation: GATT
• LS553A Core Principles of WTO Law (online) (Course Coordinator)