Esen's doctoral thesis is on the relationship between human rights and private law, “The Direct Application of Human Rights on Private Law Disputes”, and he will be working on the doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Chantal Mak during his research stay. In his doctoral thesis, Esen analyses how and to what extent human rights affect private law disputes, rejecting the strict distinction between direct and indirect horizontal effect. According to him, although it might be possible to assert the different types of intensity of horizontal effect models in a legal system, it is not necessary to reconceptualise and create new types of horizontal effect theories e.g. weak or strong. Because human rights and constitutional values affect all legal relationships, both directly and indirectly, regardless of whether they are public or private. The Turkish Constitution contains also important and privileged provisions related to the supremacy and binding nature of the Constitution in favour of the direct theory. The corporate responsibilities are appearing and increasing day by day like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

After reading Prof. Dr. Chantal Mak's doctoral thesis and ACT's subsequent work, he decided to come to ACT as a public lawyer to conduct his research. He will conduct his research for 10 months during the academic year 2024-2025 at ACT. Prior to ACT's participation, he was awarded the UNIDROIT scholarship to conduct his doctoral research activities.