'Smart Contracts In Turkish Labor Law' Master's Thesis

December 2024

Our Founding Partner, Attorney Setenay Kaya Özlütürk’s master’s thesis titled “Smart Contracts in Turkish Labor Law”, which she conducted within the scope of Istanbul University Private Law Master’s Thesis Program, was published in 2023.

While the use of blockchain technology and smart contracts, called 'second generation blockchain', is rapidly spreading all over the world especially over crypto assets; in her study, it is discussed to what extent it is possible to establish individual employment contracts in smart contract form and to be executed on blockchain technology within the scope of Turkish Labor Law with the prediction that the use of smart contracts in our country will also increase rapidly in much shorter time than expected.

Within this scope, in the first part of our study, the definition, types, technical and legal construction processes, positive and negative features of smart contracts are explained. Afterwards, the main elements and features of an employment contract in Turkish Labor Law are explained and these features are evaluated in terms of smart contracts. Additionally, in order to concretize our explanations, on-chain and off-chain smart contracts are exemplified. In the last part of the study, after detailly explaining the establishment, execution and termination stages of employment contracts in Turkish Labor Law, the applicability of these stages to smart contracts is discussed through examples.

Attorney Setenay Kaya Özlütürk's master's thesis titled "Smart Contracts in Turkish Labor Law" is now published, you can find the abstracts in English and Turkish and the full text in Turkish here.