Professor Orkun Akseli from the University of Manchester School of Law in the United Kingdom will teach two business law courses when he joins the Elon Law faculty for the first half of 2022.
An internationally recognized legal scholar in commercial law will bring his expertise to Elon Law classrooms next year as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar.
Professor Orkun Akseli from the University of Manchester School of Law will teach Secured Transactions over the winter and International Business Transactions in the spring while conducting research for his forthcoming monograph “Secured Transactions in Global Lawmaking.”
Akseli’s scholarship explores how Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code has influenced international texts that aim to modernize secured transactions laws and how its conceptual underpinnings support access to credit, inclusive finance, and sustainable finance.
“I am really excited to be part of the Elon Law faculty during my tenure as Fulbright Scholar and hope to bring international and comparative perspectives on secured transactions to the classroom,” Akseli said. “It is hoped that my time at Elon and interactions with colleagues here and at other U.S. law schools will enable me to produce an important contribution to the secured transactions literature.”
Akseli’s research carries economic significance around the globe. As he notes in his Fulbright application, many small- and medium-sized enterprises operate and own assets in different jurisdictions.
“They are engines for growth,” he wrote. “Their access to credit and financial inclusion are paramount. Financiers have been reluctant to extend credit … because of high enforcement costs and high risk. This trend is changing whereby many countries as well as international financial institutions are establishing appropriate socio-economic policies to broaden access to credit.”
Financial inclusion plays a key role in furthering United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, he writes. The G20 nations have committed to promote financial inclusion and the World Bank Group has embraced financial inclusion as essential to poverty alleviation and shared prosperity.
The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program awards approximately 850 grants each year to faculty and professionals from all corners of the globe. Grants are available to scholars from more than 100 countries with exchanges that range anywhere from three to 12 months.
In addition to his legal scholarship over the past two decade, Akseli has served as a collaborator and member with the experts committee and working groups in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, and the World Bank projects on Secured Transactions Law Reform and the Economic Analysis of Law Reform.
He is a member of Secured Transactions Law Reform Projects in the United Kingdom and a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
Elon Law Dean Luke Bierman said it is impossible to overstate the benefits of welcoming a Fulbright Visiting Scholar to Elon University’s downtown Greensboro law school.
“The breadth and depth of Professor Akseli’s knowledge will be of assistance in so many ways for students with an interest in international business law,” Bierman said. “Having a Fulbright Visiting Scholar teach and conduct research at Elon Law will provide students a better understanding of the way corporations conduct business around the globe, how small business that gain access to credit can help lift people out of poverty, and of the possibilities for their own professional development.
“It is a privilege for Elon Law to host a Fulbright Scholar and we look forward to deepening our friendship with Professor Akseli over the next year.”