Aytekin Kaan Kurtul

Dr Aytekin Kaan Kurtul is Lecturer in Law at the University of Huddersfield. He holds a PhD from Middlesex University (2022) with a thesis on criminal defamation of heads of state, and a master's degree in law from LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, Italy (2016) where he specialised in international law.

Kaan’s research interests lie at the intersection of legal history, state theory, and the concept of sovereignty, principally in relation to international human rights law, public international law, comparative constitutional law, comparative criminal law, and international investment arbitration. He has published extensively on freedom of political expression vis-à-vis political offences—with focus on the latter’s “chilling effect” on dissenting “netizens”—and his works on “denialism” offences in Europe have been critically acclaimed, leading to successful collaborations with the distinguished Turkish think-tank Centre for Eurasian Studies (Avrasya İncelemeleri Merkezi, AVİM) and the Norwegian research group Media, War and Conflict (Media, Krig og Konflikt, MEKK).

In addition to his expertise in free speech studies, Kaan’s research on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights has been referenced on the website of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and he has since integrated his findings into his more recent work on the concept of “lawfare”, which inspired the theme of the issue he designed for Athena—a scholarly journal affiliated with the University of Bologna—in his capacity as Member of the Editorial Board. Along with his contributions to Athena, Kaan acted an external reviewer for the Groningen International Law Journal in 2023, and has recently been appointed as the Deputy Coordinator of the Centre for Law, Environment and Rights (CLEAR) at the University of Huddersfield.

Kaan's latest monograph, Criminalising Dissent: Lèse-majesté and the Path to Autocracy (Routledge, 31 March 2025) has been described as "a gem for constitutional and criminal scholars" and "a stark warning for liberal democracies amid growing threats to their integrity if not their very existence" by critics, due its compelling assessment of the relationship between lèse-majesté laws and trends of autocratisation across Europe.

Kaan's recent publications:

• Kurtul AK, ‘Foreword: Lawfare Is Worth Defining’ (2025) 5(1) Athena: Critical Inquiries in Law, Philosophy and Globalization I
• Kurtul AK, 'Criminalising Boycott Calls: How Hate Speech Laws Are Weaponised in Turkey' (Verfassungsblog, 2 May 2025)
• Kurtul AK, Criminalising Dissent: Lèse-majesté and the Path to Autocracy (Routledge 2025)
• Kurtul AK, 'The Constitution under the Rubble: How Turkish Secularism Safeguards the Rule of Law and the Rights of the Child' (Verfassungsblog, 10 March 2023)
• Kurtul AK, 'Interfering with Free Speech and the Fate of Turkey: The Criminal Defamation Case of Ekrem İmamoğlu' (Verfassungsblog, 5 January 2023)
• Kurtul AK, 'The Soviet Famine and Criminalising "Denialism": Choosing between EU Law and Human Rights?' (Verfassungsblog, 22 December 2022)
• Kurtul AK, 'The Evolving Qualification of Unilateral Coercive Measures: A Historical and Doctrinal Study' (2022) 2(1) Athena: Critical Inquiries in Law, Philosophy and Globalization 204
• Kurtul AK, 'Genocide Denial Offences in Europe as Interferences with the Right to Freedom of Expression' in Alev Kılıç (ed), Türk-Ermeni İlişkileri Üzerine Ömer Engin Lütem Konferansları 2021 (Terazi Yayınları 2022)
• Kurtul AK, 'Ekşioğlu and Mosturoğlu v Turkey or “the Fenerbahçe Case”: Presumption of Innocence and the Disciplinary Proceedings of Sports Governing Bodies' (Strasbourg Observers, 17 September 2021)
• Kurtul AK, 'A Ghost that Haunts European Democracies: How Lèse-majesté Laws across Europe Threaten the Right to Dissent' (Verfassungsblog, 18 May 2021)
• Kurtul AK, 'The Karabakh Armistice: Between the Principle of Territorial Integrity and Peoples' Right to Self-Determination' (Cambridge International Law Journal Blog, 17 December 2020)
• Kurtul AK, 'Lèse-majesté and Journalism in Turkey and Europe' in Anna Grøndahl Larsen, Ingrid Fadnes, and Roy Krøvel (eds) Journalist Safety and Self-Censorship (Routledge 2020)

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Last updated 23rd March 2026