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Engin Firat

Research Student

The City Law School Academic law programmes

Contact details

About

Overview

Engin Firat (he/him) began his doctoral research in October 2023. It examines access to justice in rights-based climate litigation before international human rights mechanisms, arguing that climate applications fail not on their merits but on admissibility: the European Convention on Human Rights' procedural architecture is built around individualised harm, while climate harm is systemic. His thesis locates the response in procedural reform rather than in expanding substantive rights. Engin is supervised by Prof Tawhida Ahmed and Prof Mauro Barelli, and his research is funded by the City Law School Doctoral Scholarship.

His interest in the topic began during his LLM at Essex Law School, funded by the Jean Monnet Scholarship (2020), where his dissertation examined the European Court of Human Rights' effectiveness in protecting rights against climate harm and the potential of litigation to that end.

Before his postgraduate studies in the UK, Engin served in the Turkish judiciary. As an Assistant Rapporteur at the Turkish Constitutional Court, he reviewed individual applications (constitutional complaints), giving him direct experience of the admissibility questions his thesis now addresses. He subsequently served as a judge of the Criminal Court of First Instance.

Beyond the thesis, his research follows three related strands: the procedural architecture of the European Court of Human Rights and how it adjudicates systemic risk; rights of nature and ecological integrity as a legal interest; and the intersection of climate harm with minority rights. In August 2026 he joined the Steering Committee of Minority Rights Group's Minority Litigation Network for Climate Justice (M-LINK), representing the Middle East and North Africa. He has also written on sustainability as an adjudicative standard and on UK wildlife harvest governance.

Qualifications

  • ACES Summer School: Deepening Environmental and Social Justice 2026, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June - July 2026
  • Climate Change Litigation (Short Course), British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), September - December 2025
  • Global Minority Rights Summer School (2024): Environmental Justice and Minority Rights, The Tom Lantos Institute (Hungary, Budapest), the Ludovika University of Public Service (Hungary, Budapest), and the Human Rights Consortium (School of Advanced Study, University of London), Hungary, July 2024
  • LLM in International Human Rights Law, University of Essex, United Kingdom, 2020 - October 2021
  • MA in Human Rights, Ankara University, Turkey, September 2019
  • Mediation Certificate, Turkish Ministry of Justice, Turkey, March 2017
  • Bar Training Course - Certificate in Legal Practise, Ankara Bar Association, Turkey, 2010 - February 2011
  • LLB, Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey, 2008

Employment

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), City, University of London, United Kingdom, January 2025 - present
  • Project Assistant, City, University of London, United Kingdom, February - July 2024
  • Research Assistant, City, University of London, United Kingdom, June - August 2023
  • Research Assistant, University of Essex, United Kingdom, May - August 2022
  • Judge (Criminal Court of First Instance), Turkish Ministry of Justice & Council of Judges and Prosecutors, Turkey, June 2019 - December 2022
  • Trainee Judge, Turkish Ministry of Justice, Turkey, December 2017 - June 2019
  • Assistant Rapporteur (Individual Applications Division), Turkish Constitutional Court, Turkey, March 2012 - December 2017
  • Attorney, Law Firm - Ankara Bar Association, Turkey, June 2011 - March 2012

Memberships of professional organisations

  • Law Internship, Ankara Bar Association, February 2010 - February 2011

Languages

English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review) and Turkish (can read, write, speak, understand spoken, peer review)

Expertise

Geographic Areas

  • Europe
  • Council of Europe
  • Turkey
  • Middle East
  • MENA

Research students

1stsupervisor

2ndsupervisor

Publications

Publications by category

Book

  • Firat, E. (2020). Anayasa Mahkemesine Bireysel Başvuruda İdari İnceleme (Administrative/Initial Review of Individual Applications to the Turkish Constitutional Court ). Istanbul: On İki Levha Yayıncılık. ISBN 9786257953030.

Internet publications (3)

Journal articles (3)

  • Firat, E. (2023). RIGHTS-BASED LITIGATION IN TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE: CAN THE ECtHR BE EFFECTIVE IN PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE? Law and Justice Review, (26), pp. 89-140

    [publisher’s website]

  • (2021). İklim Değişikliği ve İnsan Hakları. Ankara Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 70(4), pp. 1155-1198. doi:10.33629/auhfd.847205

    [publisher’s website]

  • Firat, E. (2014). Toplanma Ozgurlugu ve Sinirlari - Toplumsal Olaylara Mudahalenin AIHS'nin 3. Maddesi Kapsaminda Degerlendirilmesi (The Freedom of Assembly and Its Restrictions: Assessing Intervention in Public Events Under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights). Türkiye Adalet Akademisi Dergisi (Journal of Justice Academy of Turkey), 19

Professional activities

Other (8)

  • Project Assistant , City, University of London, City Law School (February 2024 - present).
  • Research Assistant , City, University of London, School of Policy and Global Studies (June - August 2023).
  • Research Assistant , University of Essex, Essex Law School (May - August 2022).
  • Judge , Turkish Ministry of Justice (June 2019 - December 2022).
  • Trainee Judge , Turkish Ministry of Justice (December 2017 - June 2019).
  • Assistant Rapporteur Judge , Turkish Constitutional Court (March 2012 - December 2017).
  • Lawyer - Attorney , Law Firm (June 2011 - March 2012).
  • Law Internship , Law Firm (August 2010 - February 2011).