Research Interests
Freedom of religion, human rights law, Islam, secularism, law and anthropology
Research Areas
Turkiye, Europe
Profile
Ahmet Said Aydil is a PhD Candidate in the Law and Anthropology Department at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkiye). Following his graduation, he completed his legal internship, working in areas such as commercial law, international arbitration law, criminal law, and administrative law. In 2020 he passed the Turkish Bar and became a licensed attorney.
Aydil also holds an LLM from the Europa Institute, Saarland University, in International and European Human Rights Protection Law and European Economic Law. Under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Thomas Giegrich, his master’s thesis analysed the decline in human rights commitmens in Europe, driven by the rise of populist politics and the mishandling of the refugee influx of 2015, and evaluated potential remedies at the European Union and Council of Europe levels. His current research falls within the framework of the database project “Cultural and Religious Diversity under State Law across Europe” (CUREDI) at the MPI.
Why Law and Anthropology?
One of the most divisive and complicated issues currently before national and supranational courts in Europe is religious diversity. For our legal systems and courts, the simultaneous rise of diversity and secularism create new issues in the area of law and religion. Law is a dynamic phenomenon that is tied to a number of social-science subject areas, including anthropology. Anthropology provides methodological tools that allow us to go far beyond the wording of the law when it comes to religion and freedom of religious expression. I believe that working at the intersection of law and anthropology helps us to reveal the experiences, needs, and concerns of religious minorities acting within contemporary legal frameworks and brings a distinctive viewpoint to legal discourse.