Saban Ibrahim GOKSAL is a Master of Laws student at TalTech's School of Business and Governance in Estonia who also works as a research assistant at TalTech. We asked him why he chose Estonia and TalTech, what his experiences have been like and what are his future plans.
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Why did you choose to study technology law?
I received my bachelor's degree from a university in Anatolia, majoring in law. In Turkey, if you don't graduate from one of the major universities, there aren't many alternatives, especially if you graduate from a university in Anatolia as I did. You can either open your own law firm and deal with local law-related cases, or you can become a civil servant in a government institution. For students who want to improve themselves and work on higher-quality cases, the paths are generally closed. You won't be given many chances in international cases, and if you try to get involved, they will find all sorts of irrelevant reasons to keep you out of the loop, from your foreign language skills to the university you graduated from. However, technology law is a new field, and the slices of the pie had not yet been shared in both Turkey and the world. Since the technology that this field deals with continues to develop, its laws have not yet matured, so I chose this field. The handicap of this field is that just legal knowledge is not enough to develop in it; you also need knowledge of the technology on which you will apply the law. For example, to develop yourself in the field of AI Law, at the very least, you need to understand the difference between the input and output data during the training process, the difference between training and testing data, and the types of training. Without this knowledge, you cannot develop yourself in this field. And because of my personal interest in AI and Web 3, I had as much theoretical knowledge as a developer, which was all I needed to enter this field and focus on the legal aspect, which is why I chose it.
How did you come across TalTech and Estonia?
Before starting my MA (Master of Art) Law program at TalTech, I had lived in Austria for a year after graduating. My aim was to get a closer look at Europe before coming here to study. During this period, I had the opportunity to closely examine life, culture, and development especially in Germany and Austria. However, Central Europe did not satisfy me; it felt like these countries were built in the previous century and were too cumbersome to adapt to the new century. On my visits to the Nordic countries, I had the chance to get acquainted with Estonia, a small country nestled in nature and located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. The only thing I felt when my plane landed at Tallinn airport was that this time, I had found a hidden paradise, because the city between the sea and the forest excites you immensely when seen from the air. Walking around the city, passing robots delivering goods, scooters, bicycles, even car sharing applications, home sharing, and office sharing applications increased my interest in Estonia. After short research, I found a country that is preparing not for today but for the future days, setting up its industry and economy more agilely for rapidly developing innovation. In Estonia, there is no old; they have very well adopted sustainability in their lives. They renovate and continue to use houses left from the Soviet era, sharing is a widespread culture; they share their homes, cars, bicycles. Using second-hand products is very common; technological equipment, clothes, you can find everything you can imagine at more affordable prices second-hand. In summary, Estonia is living a sustainable life intertwined with technology for the near future world from today. These factors played a role in my choosing Estonia, and TalTech attracted me with its 2-year program they offered. The MA Law program in technology law offered by TalTech is among the top three in Europe for me. It provided all the courses related to the area I wanted to specialize in. Beyond the courses, what attracted me was the philosophy they adopted for my development. Because TalTech is not training future Lawyers for this field, as there will be no Lawyers in the future; TalTech is already training Legal Engineers, which will be the new profession of the future.
What comes to mind when you think about TalTech?
The incubation center, TalTech is a technology university, and it functions like an innovation incubator. Engineers are trained to develop innovation, Managers to manage this innovation, and Lawyers are developed to regulate this innovation.
Are law studies more practical or academical?
Traditional legal education is mostly academic, which was the case during my undergraduate studies at my university in Turkey. However, my program at TalTech is a mixture of this, with all courses progressing through case studies. This way, we can develop ourselves academically and practically.
What do you plan to do after graduating?
Since technology law is a relatively immature field, it's not possible for me to fully develop my expertise in this area with just a 2-year MA Law program. Therefore, I am planning to start my Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) program, specifically focusing on the legal and ethical aspects of AI and Web 3, and I want to continue my developmental journey through deep research.
How is a student life in Tallinn?
Tallinn is more student-budget friendly compared to other European cities. Here, I can participate in many activities on a low budget. Its location also allows me to visit other Northern European countries on a lower budget. Tallinn is rich in student clubs; the three different universities here and their clubs offer many event opportunities, and most of them are either very cheap or free.