Ayşe Işıl Karakaş

In 1983, she graduated from the Department of Political Science of İstanbul University, and between 1984 and 1993, she worked as a research assistant in the same institution. In 1986, she gained her first master's degree in Public Law, İstanbul University. In 1986, she gained her second master's degree in the field of European Law at the Centre Européen Universitaire at the Nancy II University.

In 1990, Karakaş graduated from the Faculty of Law of Marmara University, and was admitted to the Istanbul Bar Association in 1990. In 1992, she received her PhD degree in Public Law at İstanbul University.

Between 1993 and 1999, Ayşe Işıl Karakaş was an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Istanbul University. She also worked at the Faculty of Law at the Galatasaray University between 1999 and 2003.

Between 2002 and 2008, Karakaş was the Director of the Research and Documentation Centre on Europe at the Galatasaray University.

Between 2003 and 2008, she worked as a full professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the Galatasaray University. She was a visiting professor at the University of Aix-Marseille III, of Reims, of Montpellier II, of Université Robert Schuman, and vice dean of the Faculty of Law at the Galatasaray University between 2004 and 2008.

She is a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the Republic of Turkey since 1 May 2008.

She is a supporter of allowing the hijab in Turkish universities. She takes part in the conferences of the 'Abant Platformu' foundation, which has close ties to Fethullah Gülen. Political she is known as liberal. She belongs to the 'Second Republicans' (Group with liberal and marxist political views in Turkey), who support the AKP and its political goals like allowing for the hijab at universities.

Karakaş was born on 8 December 1958 in İstanbul, Turkey.