Professor Orkun Akseli is Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Manchester School of Law, and was the Academic Director and Chair of the Manchester Law and Technology Initiative between 2022-2024. He joined the Law School in 2021, having previously taught at the University of Manchester, the Robert Gordon University, Newcastle University and Durham University. 

Professor Akseli studied for his LLB at Dokuz Eylul University Law Faculty, Izmir, Turkey. He obtained his LLM from the University of Georgia Law School, USA; MA from Istanbul Bilgi University Law Faculty and PhD from the University of Manchester Law School. Before embarking on academic life he practiced insurance defence and commercial litigation in Izmir. He is a member of Turkish Bar. 

Professor Akseli's research interests are in the corporate and commercial field with particular emphasis on the harmonisation and modernisation of secured transactions laws, development finance and the facilitation of credit. His monograph 'International Secured Transactions Law: Facilitation of Credit, International Conventions and Instruments' was published by Routledge in 2011. He is the editor and co-editor of numerous publications on the harmonisation and modernisation of secured transactions law. 

Professor Akseli has been actively involved in national (Secured Transactions Law Reform Project and City of London Law Society Secured Transactions Law Code) and international (Unidroit Model Law on Factoring; UNCITRAL Model Law on Secured Transactions) law reform activities. 

He is appointed (together with Professor Teresa Rodriguez de las Heras Ballell - Carlos III) by the International Academy of Comparative Law as General Rapporteur to prepare a report on "Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms in the Enforcement of Security Interests and Insolvency". The report was presented in 2022 in Asuncion, Paraguay. 

Professor Akseli was a Specialist Adviser to the REF 2021 Sub-panel 18. 

Professor Akseli is a member of UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College, ESRC and AHRC Peer Review Colleges. He is also frequently invited to review grant applications by the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Belgium Research Foundation/Flanders (FWO) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

He is a past President and the current Secretary General of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law. He is an elected member of the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is a member of a number of international arbitration groups. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is a member of the Istanbul Kadir Has University Law Faculty's Advisory Board. He is a member of the Advisory Board of ELI's Turkish Hub. 

In 2025 Professor Akseli was awarded £20,000 funding by the Hallsworth Conference Funds to organise "Digital and Sustainable Futures: What Role for Digital Assets and Private Law" Conference at the University of Manchester. Selected papers will be published in a special issue by the Journal of Law and Commerce (University of Pittsburgh). 

In 2020 Professor Akseli was awarded with the Fulbright Award to spend time teaching and researching in the USA at Elon University Law School in 2021/2022. He taught Secured Transactions, and International Business Transactions to JD students.

He was awarded £10,000 funding (together with Professor John Linarelli) by the Society of Legal Scholars to organise the 2017 SLS Annual seminar "The Future of Commercial Law: Ways Forward for Harmonisation". The proceedings from this prestigious conference were published by Hart Publishing in 2021. 

Professor Akseli was awarded £4000 funding by the Modern Law Review in 2010 and sponsored by the World Bank for the purpose of organising The World Bank and the Modern Law Review Conference on International Legal Standards on Secured Transactions and Financial Crisis. This prestigious and competitive award, as well as the generous support of the World Bank, enabled the development of academic and practical debate on how international legal standards on secured transactions might faciliate credit in the face of financial crisis. The proceedings from this conference were published by the Cambridge University Press.

Professor Akseli acts as an international legal expert in a number of international secured transactions law reform activities. He is also an expert observer in the Unidroit Working Group for the Model Law on Factoring. 

Professor Akseli was a Visiting Scholar at National University of Singapore (2020); Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London (2013-2014); and at New York University  Law School Centre for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law (2016).

He has been a visiting faculty at the University of Hamburg, Singapore Management University, City University of Hong Kong, Verona University, Istanbul Bilgi University and Istanbul Yeditepe University. 

He supervised 8 PhD students to successful completion and is frequently invited as external examiner to PhD vivas in the UK and abroad. 

Corporate Law

Commercial Law

Corporate Finance Law

Secured Transactions Law

International Banking Law

International Commercial Dispute Resolution

Secured Transactions, Law Reform and Global lawmaking

Corporate and Commercial Law

International and Comparative Law

Arbitration and ADR

Sale of Goods

Professor Akseli is happy to supervise PhD thesis on secured transactions, law reform, corporate finance law, law and finance, and arbitration/mediation. 

Professor Akseli's office drop-in hours during term time are as follows (in person, online, or by appointment):

Semester 1:

Mondays 11-12

Tuesdays 10-11

Semester 2:

Mondays 12-2 or by appointment or online.