51cg

Biography

Professor Yüksel Ripley holds a Personal Chair in Law, specialising in private international law, commercial aspects of international trade and finance law, and legal issues concerning crypto/digital assets. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE.    

Burcu obtained her LLB and PhD in Private International Law (Turkey), and her LLM in International and Comparative Business Law (England). Before joining the 51cg, she worked at Ankara University Law Faculty. She also practised law and worked at the Export Credit Bank of Turkey (Turk Eximbank).  

Burcu has published on private international law, international trade law, international payments, international commercial dispute resolution, crypto/digital assets, and Turkish law. She is the author of (The Law Applicable to International Electronic Funds Transfer) and co-editor of , , and . She has been involved in several internationally collaborative research projects and appointed by courts in the UK and Turkey to give expert opinion evidence.

Burcu is an representative in the Experts' Group and was a pro-bono subject matter expert consultant at the project's exploratory phase. She is a member of the and of the Advisory Panel of the project. Formerly, she was a Scottish Parliament Academic Fellow focusing on digital assets, a NERC Fellow of the , and a Special Rapporteur for the UK for the .

Research Overview

Burcu's research interests are in the following areas:

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

Current Research

Burcu is currently researching on private international law aspects of digital assets and electronic trade documents. 

Funding and Grants

• 2025-2025: Digital Assets in Scots Law, Scottish Parliament Academic Fellow 
• 2023- 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)  
• 2021- 2023: Time to Become Digital in Law (), funded by the European Commission, Erasmus+ Programme (Position held: Co-Investigator). 
• 2020- 2023: NERC Constructing a Digital Environment (CDE) Fellow of the , funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), .
• 2014- 2016: Cross-Border Litigation in Europe: Private International Law Legislative Framework, National Courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union (), 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)