Staff profile

Affiliation

Assistant Professor in Commercial Law

Member of Durham International Dispute Resolution Institute

Dr Eken currently serves as an assistant professor at Durham Law School. He is a triple-qualified lawyer, admitted in California, Turkey, and England and Wales. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University and the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg for Procedural Law. 

He has authored numerous publications on international commercial arbitration, investment law, third-party funding, and online dispute resolution. He is the recipient of the 2021 Postgraduate Research Output Award from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also a finalist of the 2021 Asian Law Junior Faculty Workshop from the National University of Singapore as well as the 2019 UNSW Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Global Network PhD Scholar Prize in Sydney, Australia. 

Dr Eken is regularly invited to speak in international conferences and offer consultancy services to law firms on international arbitration as well as law matters in California and Turkey. Among his professional activities, he has lectured in various jurisdictions including Turkey, Hong Kong, India, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan. He has acted as a peer reviewer in several journals, including Asia Pacific Law Review. He has served on the Executive Secretariat of the Asia Pacific FDI Network and the panel of arbitrators at the Shanghai International Arbitration Centre and Thailand Arbitration Centre. 

Prior to joining the faculty at Durham, Dr Eken was a practising lawyer in Turkey following a brief stint as a research assistant. He completed a PhD degree at the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also completed the two LLM degrees, one from the London School of Economics and Political Science and another from Dokuz Eylul University, where he also obtained a bachelor’s degree in law with high honours.

Research groups

Centre for Chinese Law and Policy

Centre for Law and Global Justice

• Alternative dispute resolution methods
• Commercial mediation
• International commercial arbitration
• Investment law
• Online dispute resolution
• Third-party funding

Authored book

• Eken, C. (2024). Third-Party Funding in Investment Arbitration: A New Player in the System. Springer Nature

Book review

• Yuksel, C., & Eken, C. (2021). Review of the book The American Influence on International Commercial Arbitration: Doctrinal Developments and Discovery Methods (2nd ed.), edited by P. J. Martinez-Fraga. https://doi.org/10.26650/ppil.2021.41.1.846374
• Eken, C. (2019). Review of the book China’s International Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Law and Policy, edited by J. Chaisse

Chapter in book

• Eken, C., & Mahmood, T. Expedited International Arbitration in the MENA Region. In A. M. Anderson, & H. Verbist (Eds.), Expedited International Arbitration: Policies, Rules and Procedures. Wolters Kluwer

Journal Article

• Eken, C. (2022). Analysis of Third-Party Funding within the Islamic Framework
• Eken, C. (2022). A Detailed Comparison of Third-Party Funding Regulations in Hong Kong and Singapore. Asia Pacific Law Review, 29(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/10192557.2021.1979799
• Bergolla, L., Seif, K., & Eken, C. (2021). A Socio-Legal Case Study of Decentralized Justice & Blockchain Arbitration. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3918485
• Chaisse, J., & Eken, C. (2020). The Monetization of Investment Claims: Promises and Pitfalls of Third-Party Funding
• Eken, C. (2018). Applicable Law to Merits in International Arbitration and its Relation with Mandatory Rules and Public Policy

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Eken, C. (2021). Should Environmental Concerns be Considered in Investment Arbitration Rulings?
• Eken, C. (2021). Tribunal Secretaries: Explained