The Three Countries Seminar (Dreiländer Seminar), which is held in cooperation with academics from Turkey, Germany and Hungary, plays an important role in developing the expansion of academic cooperation between countries. Participating country students are at the forefront of the event and take an active role in their presentations. In this way, students gain experience in the international arena and comprehend the importance of comparative study by considering the laws of countries comparatively.
Since its first meeting in Istanbul in 2014, the Three Countries Seminar has been held regularly. Hosted by one of the counted countries every year, these seminars were first held in Istanbul in 2014, hosted by Istanbul University. Presentations were made on various criminal law issues in this first meeting under the name of “Bosphorus seminar”. The second three countries seminar was held in Gießen in 2015, hosted by Justus-Liebig University of Gießen, with the title “The comparison of material crime and formal crime in the 21st century”. The third seminar was held in Szeged, hosted by Szeged University in 2018, and discussed the consequences of globalization and rapid progress in technology in terms of national legislation of countries in the process of criminal procedure and the evaluation of these results on an international scale. The last of the three countries seminar held so far was hosted by the University of Konstanz in the city of Konstanz, Germany in 2019. The title of this seminar has been determined as “Democracy and Criminal Law”.
The planned three future three countries seminars in the context of this project are:
“Latest Challenges of Criminal Justice Reforms in Connection with Digitalization and the General Doctrines of Criminal Law” İstanbul 2021.
“Critical Reforms of Specific Criminal Offences with Respect to the new types of criminality arising from Digitalization” Szeged 2021.
“The Use of Digitalization in Penal Procedural Law” Konstanz 2022.
Reflection of Digital Age On Criminal Law, July 2022
The event was hosted by Istanbul University, leaders of other teams, and some project members from IU held presentations 1st -the 3rd of July 2022. In the program, the speakers focused on the most current topics of digitalization and the criminal aspects of these topics. Traditional criminal law doctrine and procedural rights do not respond to various issues which have emerged with rapid digitalization.
On the first day, the DIGICRIMJUS project was introduced to non-partner audiences, and the importance of comparative research and inter-university cooperation; additionally, digitalization in the criminal procedure law was discussed. On the second day, AI-related topics were presented, such as criminal responsibility, robot judges, autonomous vehicles, and likely risks to human rights. New legislation and developments on Blockchain and crypto assets were addressed. The last issue was Metaverse and criminal law relations. On the last day of the event, cybercrime victimization and especially violence against women in the cyber sphere were the focus points. The new changes in the Turkish Criminal code were analysed in the aspect of cyber grooming and stalking.
Criminal Law Reforms in the Digital Age, 2023
The event is a dedicated edition of the congress on criminal law reforms that have been held as an anniversary of taking into the effect of the new Turkish Penal Code on the 1st of June 2005. It has been internationally held by Istanbul University, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedural Law since 2010. The Turkish Criminal Law Reform of 1 June 2005 has been commemorated with an academic program held in June of every year, consisting of discussions on developments and issues in Turkish criminal law. It hosts academics (criminal law professors), chief prosecutors, judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, as well as other individuals working on criminal law from all over the world and Turkey. Lawyers and experts in various areas such as criminology, psychology, sociology, and medicine attended these interdisciplinary conferences.
The event’s objectives are (1) the year 2023 implies quasi the end of our project. Therefore, what we are going to have obtained can be taught and conveyed to the participants of our world congress that comes from not only continental European criminal law systems but also undeveloped and developing criminal law systems from different parts of the world. This gives a huge opportunity to multiply our project results. (2) Bringing criminal law experts from all over the world and Turkey into the same platform to discuss their ways of methods and share with them their experiences and knowledge. (2) Developing and putting forth a comparative approach to digitalism in legal issues and problems with the international participants of the congress. (3) supporting young panellists (law students and postgraduate students) to present their own legal system in an internationally held event in Istanbul. (4) Establishing an exchange platform (separate panel) for issues of teaching (comparative) criminal law in the digital age in a multilingual and international (globalized) world (5) Publishing the materials within and through the Knowledge Hub of DIGICRIMJUS.
