Overview

Graduates of Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law, who will have an excellent command of English and Turkish legal doctrine, are to take an active role in the regulation and interpretation of both public and private law areas in accordance with the needs of the globalising world and the universal principles of law. Our graduates, who would have an excellent command of the fundamental areas of law in our legal system (eg. civil law, commercial law, administrative law, criminal law, and constitutional law) will be ahead of other lawyers in two respects. First, following a global and interdisciplinary legal education covering modern and international debates, they will have graduated with deep knowledge of global legal issues. Second, they will have a chance to specialise in diverse areas of law by virtue of more than 70 elective law courses offered by the Law Faculty and courses offered by the other departments of Boğaziçi University.       

Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law, providing an abundance of elective courses taught in English, prioritises thematic areas such as contract law, international law, law of the sea, European Union law, human rights law, investment law, energy law, IT law, competition law, capital market law, finance law, sports law and economic law. Thus, our students shall graduate as competent lawyers in the case-law of the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, European Court of Human Rights, Court of Justice of the European Union and international arbitration tribunals. Accordingly, we will have the opportunity to raise legal professionals who are aware of the developing and changing demands and problems of modern society and are equipped to find solutions to them in accordance with the universal principles of law.

Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law will provide bilingual legal education taught in Turkish and English. An essential part of the compulsory courses will be taught in Turkish while the elective law courses, as well as some of the compulsory courses and all non-departmental courses, will be in English. More than 50% of the courses will be taught in English, which is significantly higher than the statutory obligation of 30%.    

In accordance with its mission, Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law will actively participate in the national and international student exchange programs (Erasmus etc.). We aim to make bilateral and multilateral agreements with prominent establishments through the connections of our University and our scholars. In this respect, we have the aim of being a faculty that not only sends but also receives foreign students, scholars, and administrative personnel. It is considered that the bilingual education and extensive English-taught course options will strengthen the network of our Faculty.

The fundamental principles regarding the student quota of Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law have been determined in compliance with the Faculty’s mission and vision. Student quotas of prestigious universities around the world and our country have been examined by considering the fact that our faculty will provide bilingual, interdisciplinary, and comparative legal education. In light of these examinations, a strategically limited number of students to attain our goals shall be sought. Our faculty is expected to become one of the most preferred law faculties in Turkey by the first student admission.

COMPULSORY COURSES

Law graduates are required to have substantial knowledge of the fundamental areas of law to be able to perform basic legal professions such as magistracy, prosecutor, attorneyship, and notariate. As a matter of fact, in accordance with the additional article 41 that was added to the Higher Education Code with Law No. 7188, law graduates entering the law faculties starting from the 2022-2023 academic year are required to pass 'the Law Professions Entrance Exam' before sitting the judge candidacy exam or starting the attorneyship or notariate internships. This exam is to interrogate the candidate’s knowledge in 17 fundamental areas. Compulsory courses at the Faculty of Law are designed in accordance with the exigencies of this exam. 

Along with the compulsory courses that are necessary for the formation of the basis of legal education, new compulsory courses such as 'law and economics' and 'comparative legal systems' have been added to the curriculum as per the mission and vision of our Faculty. Whilst the number and credit of compulsory courses were kept to a minimum within the law, it is aimed to allocate more space to the elective courses reflecting the individual preferences of the students.

Transforming our students to resourceful lawyers, the Faculty of Law follows an education program that stands out with its interdisciplinary aspect. Boğaziçi University Faculty of Law students will take compulsory courses not only from the Faculty of Law, but also from the Departments of Economics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations. They will also be able to take elective courses from these and/or other departments.

ELECTIVE COURSES

In pursuance of our mission and vision in Boğazici University Faculty of Law, we aim to offer more than 70 elective law courses, by which our students can have in-depth knowledge in diverse areas of law. Those courses will be taught by the scholars in the Faculty of Law, scholars in other departments of our University, and visiting scholars from other institutions in order to integrate with the interdisciplinary education objective. Elective courses will be taught in English focusing on the issues currently subject to vivid debate all over the world. Elective courses will be offered from the first year onwards, the number of which will be increased each year. The majority of elective courses will be introduced in the third and fourth years so that the students will have the chance to make their choice after having had the knowledge of the main legal subjects.

Our students will have the freedom to determine their area of specialisation through their chosen elective courses. The elective courses will be taught interactively with the contribution of the students. Furthermore, the highest level of integration possible with the other departments of the University will be achieved by enabling law students to take compulsory and elective courses from other departments.