Food Law
Symposium

Hosted by İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University in cooperation with Balıkesir University

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON FOOD LAW – 2026

“Foundations of Food Law: Private Law, Public Law and European Union Perspectives”

• Monday, 12 October 2026
• 09:00 – 17:00 (Turkey Time)
• Hybrid (in person and online)
• Symposium Languages: Turkish and English

1. Aim of the Symposium

Food cannot be reduced to a single branch of the legal order: it is at once a matter of public health, a consumer relationship, a commercial asset, a cultural heritage and a subject of international harmonisation. In Turkish law, food-related rules extend across a wide field — from constitutional obligations to Law No. 5996 on Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed; from the Turkish Food Codex to the provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code on offences against public health; and from the intellectual property and unfair competition regime to the law of administrative sanctions. In practice, this fragmentation gives rise to conflicts of competence, concurrence of norms and problems of legal predictability.

The Symposium aims to open this fragmented body of norms to discussion within a single conceptual framework, and to address whether food law constitutes an autonomous discipline or a cross-cutting field of law, taking into account its private law, public law, intellectual property law and European Union law dimensions. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the Symposium brings together legal scholars as well as researchers from gastronomy, food science and the social sciences.

2. Thematic Structure

The programme consists of six sessions reflecting the normative layers of food law:

• Session I – Foundations of Food Law: The relationship between the legal definition of food and its social meaning, the administration’s supervisory powers and administrative sanctions in ensuring food safety, discretionary power and the principle of proportionality in administrative fines, and the role of Law No. 5996 in ensuring food safety.
• Session II – Private Law Dimension of Food Law: Halal food certification, control of standard contract terms in the food supply chain, the producer’s liability arising from defective food, and trade dress protection for food packaging.
• Session III (in English) – Comparative Food Law and EU Harmonisation: The primary responsibility of food business operators in EU food law, enforcement capacity in Turkey’s alignment with EU food law, the harmonisation of Kyrgyzstan’s food safety regulation with EU food law, and legal frameworks on food security and social protection.
• Session IV (in English) – Food Security, Sustainability and Agricultural Policy: Plant variety protection as a food security instrument, the role of tax and economic regulation in food price crises, and the new dimension of sustainability in the EU Common Agricultural Policy after Regulation 2024/1143.
• Session V – Public Law Dimension of Food Law: Risk assessment and risk management in Turkish food legislation, the element of danger in the offence of trading in spoiled or altered food, the constitutional duty of the State to protect in food safety, and the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies.
• Session VI – Intellectual Property Dimension of Food Law: Patentability of classical formulations and cellular agriculture technologies in food innovation, and the relationship between food making and intellectual property.

3. Opening Speakers

• Prof. Dr. İsmail KÜÇÜK – Rector, Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University (İZÜ)
• Prof. Dr. Yücel OĞURLU – Rector, Balıkesir University (BAÜN)
• Prof. Dr. Mustafa YASAN – Dean, Faculty of Law, BAÜN
• Prof. Dr. Canan KÜÇÜKALİ – Dean, Faculty of Law, İZÜ

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Dr. Oswald JANSEN – Faculty Member, Faculty of Law, BAÜN

Food Law in Türkiye at the Intersection of European and International Administrative Law

4. Participation

The Symposium will be held in hybrid format, hosted by İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. In-person participation will take place at the İZÜ Abdullah Tivnikli Hall, and online participation via Zoom (Meeting ID: 926 6639 3112, Passcode: 610739). Participation is free of charge.

5. Symposium Calendar

6. Technical Requirements for Paper Submission

For all rules on formatting, citation and references, the “Paper Writing and Submission Guidelines” shall apply.

7. Publication

Papers presented at the Symposium will be published on 20 October 2026 as electronic proceedings with an e-ISBN. Papers whose full text is not submitted by the stated deadline may, at the discretion of the Organising Committee, be published only as extended abstracts.

8. Contact

For paper submissions and enquiries:

• Res. Asst. Ömer Fatih GÜRCAN – +90 553 330 78 42
• Dr. Beyza AKA – +90 536 474 54 79

Papers and abstracts shall be sent to sempozyumhukuk@izu.edu.tr.

9. Scientific Committee

• Prof. Dr. Oswald JANSEN – Faculty of Law, Balıkesir University
• Prof. Dr. Amir ALIYEV – The Training Center of the Bar Association of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Chair)
• Prof. Dr. Yücel OĞURLU – Rector, Balıkesir University
• Prof. Dr. Mustafa YASAN – Dean, Faculty of Law, Balıkesir University
• Prof. Dr. Canan KÜÇÜKALİ – Dean, Faculty of Law, İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
• Prof. Dr. Zaur ALIYEV – Dean, Faculty of Law, Baku State University (Azerbaijan)
• Prof. Dr. Jordan DELEV – Dean, Faculty of Law, International Vision University (North Macedonia)
• Prof. Dr. Lyudmila Alexandrovna BUKALEROVA – Head of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Criminology, RUDN University
• Prof. Dr. Abdulmecit NUREDIN – Faculty of Law, International Vision University (North Macedonia)
• Prof. Dr. Alua IBRAYEVA – Department of History of the Theory of State and Law, Faculty of Law, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Academician of the National Academy of Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ualikhan AKHATOV – Dean, Faculty of Law, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Department of History of the Theory of State and Law; Academician of the National Academy of Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Karlygash USSEINOVA – Head of the Department of Administrative Law, Faculty of Law, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dinara AZHINURINA – Dean, Faculty of Law, Kazakh National Agrarian Research University (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maya KULBAEVA – Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, Kh. Dosmukhamedov Atyrau University (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meruyert MURATKHANOVA – Department of Criminal Law, Faculty of Law, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (Kazakhstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ulan ANDASHEV – Department of Civil and Labour Law, Faculty of Law, J. Balasagyn Kyrgyz National University (Kyrgyzstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Baytik BUZURMANKULOV – Department of Criminal Procedure and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Law, J. Balasagyn Kyrgyz National University (Kyrgyzstan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zokirjon ZIKRIYEV – Almalyk Institute of Technology, Tashkent (Uzbekistan)
• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Meiramkul ISSAYEVA – Faculty of Law, International Vision University (North Macedonia)
• Dr. Ena KAZIĆ-ÇAKAR – Dean, Faculty of Law, International University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

10. Organising Committee

• Dr. Esra GÜLTEKİN – Faculty of Law, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University
• Dr. Beyza AKA – İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
• Dr. Cüneyt Şamil OĞURLU – Istanbul Chamber of Commerce
• Asst. Prof. Dr. Şeyma Bükre DÖNDER – International University of Sarajevo
• Res. Asst. Ömer Fatih GÜRCAN – İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
• Berna Tuğçe KÜÇÜKALİ – PhD Candidate, McGill University (Montreal, Canada)
• Res. Asst. Sezen Dilege KAYI – İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
• Res. Asst. Nebile Nur ADALI – İstanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
• Asst. Prof. Dr. Gözde KUMAŞ – Faculty of Tourism, Balıkesir University