Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Prof. Dr. Anna-Bettina Kaiser

Georg Forster Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Contact

E-mail: esra.demir-guersel@rewi.hu-berlin.de

Esra Demir-Gürsel (PhD) is a Georg Forster Postdoctoral Research Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Faculty of Law of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Demir Gürsel’s work centers on human rights law, international organisations, history of human rights, legal theory, and gender and law. Tracing the historical evolution of the European Convention on Human Rights system, her current project investigates the limits of the European Court of Human Rights in responding to the entrenchment of authoritarianism among the member states of the Council of Europe.

She holds a PhD in Public Law from Marmara University, an LL.M in Public Law from Istanbul University, and an MA in Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex.

Positions

• Since 01/2020                        
  Georg Forster Postdoctoral Fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Faculty of Law
• 09/2017 – 09/2019                 
  Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher, Freie Universität Berlin, Faculty of Law
• 04/2017 – 07/2017                 
  Visiting Fellow, Hertie School of Governance
• 11/2016 – 09/2017                 
  Visiting Researcher, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Faculty of Law
• 04/2015 – 09/2015          
  Parental leave
• 02/2013 – 02/2017                 
  Research and Teaching Assistant, Human Rights Law Department, Marmara University, Faculty of Law, Istanbul
• 07/2006 – 02/2013                 
  Research and Teaching Assistant, General Public Law Department, Marmara University, Faculty of Law, Istanbul

Education

• 2007-2014                             
  Ph.D in Public Law, Marmara University, Turkey
• 2008-2009                              
  MA in Theory and Practice of Human Rights, University of Essex, UK.
• 2003-2007                             
  LL.M in Public Law, Istanbul University, Turkey
• 2003-2004                              
  Legal Internship, Istanbul Bar, Turkey.
• 1998-2002                             
  LL.B in Law, Istanbul University, Turkey.

Teaching (Selected)

• Summer 2022                        
  Regional Human Rights Courts: Origins, Evolution, and Challenges, Faculty of Law, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, undergraduate seminar
• Winter 2021-22                     
  History and Politics of International Human Rights Law, Social Sciences Institute, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, undergraduate seminar
• Winter 2021-22                     
  Religion and Morality in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, undergraduate seminar
• Summer 2021                        
  Religion and Morality in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, Faculty of Law, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, undergraduate seminar

 Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

• The European Court of Human Rights: Current Challenges in Historical Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021 (co-edited with Helmut Philipp Aust).
• Special Issue on The Council of Europe Responses to the Decay of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Protections, 2021 The European Convention on Human Rights Law Review 2(2) (co-edited with Başak Çalı).
• Üniversitelerde Disiplin Soruşturmaları: Öğrencilerin İfade ve Örgütlenme Özgürlüğü (Disciplinary Proceedings against University Students: Freedom of Expression and Assembly), XII Levha, 2013 (with Hülya Dinçer, Zeynep Kıvılcım, Gülşah Kurt, and Benan Molu), open access.

Articles

• “The Former Secretary General of the Council of Europe Confronting Russia’s Annexation of the Crimea and Turkey’s State of Emergency,” 2021 The European Convention on Human Rights Law Review 2(2), pp. 303-335.
• “The Council of Europe’s Responses to the Decay of the Rule of Law and Human Rights Protections: A Comparative Appraisal,” 2021 The European Convention on Human Rights Law Review, 165-179 (with Başak Çalı), open access.
• “İnsan Hakları Evrensel Bildirisi’nin 29. Maddesi ve Kendisinden Sonra Gelen Belgelerdeki İzleri: Bireylerin Ödevleri ve Hakların Sınırları (Article 29 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Its Legacies: Duties of the Individual and The Limits of Rights),” 2021 Türk-Alman Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi 3(2), pp. 3-51, open access.
• “Hudoyberganova – Özbekistan ve Leyla Şahin – Türkiye Kararlarına İlişkin Bir Değerlendirme (A Comparative Analysis of Hudoyberganova v Uzbekistan and Leyla Şahin v Turkey),” 2016 3(1) Hukuk Kuramı 1-10, open access.
• “The Distinction between the Freedom of Religion and the Right to Manifest Religion: A Legal Medium to Regulate Subjectivities” (2013) 22(3) Social & Legal Studies 377-393.
• Article: “NÇ Davası: Tecavüze Razı Olmak ve Kadınların Ahlakı (The Case of NÇ: Consenting Rape and the Women’s Morality)” in Bihterin Dinçkol et al (eds), Mehmet Akad’a Armağan, Der, 2012, 337-361.
• Revised version following the higher court’s judgment reprinted in Sınır Bilgisi: Siyasal İktidar, Toplumsal Mekan ve Kadına Yönelik Şiddet in Elif Çelebi, Didem Havlioğlu, Ebru Kayaalp (eds), Ayizi Kitap, 2014, 137-161.
• “Kürtaj Hak Olursa Karar Kadınlara Kalır mı? (If abortion becomes a right, would the decision be remained with the women?)” (2012) 26 Amargi 8-11.
• “İnsan Haklarının Evrenselliği Görüşü Karşısında Kültürel Rölativizm (Universality of Human Rights v Cultural Relativism)” (2008) 14(3) Hukuk Araştırmaları Dergisi 209-242.

Book chapters

• “For the Sake of Unity: The Drafting History of the European Convention on Human Rights and its Current Relevance” in Helmut Philipp Aust and Esra Demir-Gürsel (eds), The European Court of Human Rights: Current Challenges in Historical Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing
• “The Limits of the European Court of Human Rights vis-à-vis Contestation and Authoritarianism: Concluding Observations” in Helmut Philipp Aust and Esra Demir-Gürsel (eds), The European Court of Human Rights: Current Challenges in Historical Perspective, Edward Elgar Publishing,
• “Curfews and International Human Rights Law: Looking Beyond the Crisis” in Pınar Ceylan (ed), “Major Lockdown,” Rights Violations During Curfews and Conflicts in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia in 2015-2016, pp. 9-30, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, 2021 (with Hülya Dinçer). 
• “İnsan Hakları Avrupa Mahkemesi’nin Pek Hassas Terazisi ve Demokratik Toplum Anlayışı (The Very Sensitive Scale and the Conception of Democratic Society of the European Court of Human Rights)” in Bora Erdağı (ed), Liberal Hakların, Hukukun ve Devletin Sınırları, NotaBene, 2015, 59-84.
• “Regulating Women’s Bodies in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights” in Niamh Reilly and Stacey Scriver (eds), Religion, Gender and the Public Sphere, Routledge, 2013, 155-167.

Other publications

• Review of Jens Theilen, European Consensus between Strategy and Principle – The Uses of Vertically Comparative Legal Reasoning in Reginal Human Rights Adjudication, Baden-Baden, Nomos 2021, in Archiv des Völkerrechts (forthcoming).
• “‘A Court that matters’ to whom and for what? Academic freedom as a (non-)impact case” (Strasbourg Observers, 11 June 2021) (with Başak Çalı)
• “Stay Away from Using your Constitutional Rights” (Verfassungsblog, 30 July 2020) (with Başak Çalı)
• “On the Crime Allegedly Committed by the Academics for Peace: Propaganda for a Terrorist Organization or Degrading the State of Turkish Republic” (AfP Hypotheses, 11 December 2017)
• “Geceleri de, Sokakları da, Meydanları da İstiyoruz (We Demand the Nights, Streets and Squares)” (Bianet, 8 March 2012)
• “Uludere Saldırısı: Ulusal Ekonomi ve Ulusal Güvenlik (Uludere Airstrike: National Economy and National Security)” (Bianet, 3 January 2012)
• “Silvan’ın Ardından Devletin Yükümlülükleri (Obligations of the State After the Military Offensive in Silvan)” (Bianet, 18 July 2011)
• “Askerler Anlatıyor: Haksız, yanlış ve fuzuli emirler (Soldiers Recount: Unjust, wrong, and undue orders)” (2011) 118 Express
• “Türkiye'nin AİHM Savunmaları (Turkey’s Defences before the ECtHR)” (2010) 111 Express