After the closing ceremony of the Conference, a group of scholars decided to establish International Law and Economics Association Bilkent (ILEAB): an association, which would further strengthen the relations of the scholars especially from Turkey, Middle East countries and the states in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia. Additionally, Bilkent University has started the initiatives to establish Bilkent University Law and Economics Research Center (BILEC), which would support research and education that focuses on the timely and relevant economic analysis of legal and public policy issues. The conference showed a remarkable increase of law and economic research in Turkey and other countries from the region. This issue contains a selection seven of these papers, which represent this fruitful and inspiring academic event. The papers in this issue have a special focus on law and economics in Turkey as well as Middle East countries and on questions of developing countries. Four of the papers examine various aspects of Turkish law from an economic perspective. In their empirical paper, Başak Babaoglu and Alexander J. Wulf deal with the consequences that arose following the decriminalization of the issuance of bad checks in Turkey. They attempt to find out whether the decriminalization has distorted payments by checks, whether it has created incentives to use other forms of payment, and whether it has led to additional costs for both companies and the
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