VUB Contextual Research in Law

  (image source: Brill ) Brill announced the forthcoming publication (24 July 2025) of former CORE member dr. Wouter De Rycke's monograph Justifying Utopia. A Legal History of the International Peace Movement (1815-1873). Abstract: When and why did international law begin to oppose war? For centuries, sovereignty implied the right to wage war. Yet over the past hundred years, a remarkable succession of treaties, courts, and organisations sprang to life that sought to prohibit war. From a fringe ambition, the ideal of ‘peace through law’ became the foundation of international law. This book traces part of this evolution back to the small peace movement of the early nineteenth century, recounting how the earliest organised pacifists built their legal case against war. The stories of this diverse social movement are told from numerous perspectives, and each sheds further light on how ordinary men and women helped lay the groundwork for one of the greatest shifts in legal thinking abou...

     Dr. Marie-Sophie Silan  (PhD in Law, Assistant Professor at the University of Liège, Service de droit romain et droit privé comparé, Centre Liégeois d’Histoire du Droit) Wives and Mothers: The Legal Position of Women within Marriage in Early Modern Liège  (16th-17th centuries) Abstract This contribution explores the legal status of married women in Liège during the 16th and 17th centuries. It first examines the role of women as wives, particularly their legal relationship with their husbands. Central to this discussion is the  mainplévie  regime, which governed married women unless otherwise stipulated in their marriage contract. This system not only subjected wives to marital authority—requiring obedience to their husband and restricting their legal capacity—but also stripped them of ownership over the assets they brought into the marriage, typically through their dowry. The second part of this study focuses on the legal relationship between moth...

In the second semester, the Contextual Research in Law research group will host a series of guest lectures and symposia: February 25, 2025 : Dr. Marie-Sophie Silan (Visiting Professor, ULiège) on Gender and Law in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (English) [B 4.08, 12:30] March 13–15, 2025 : EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History Peak Event: Individual and Collective Rights in Legal History [Warwick] – For more information, contact Prof. Dr. Frederik Dhondt March 18, 2025 : Dr. François Pierrard (Postdoc, FRNS/UCLouvain) on Goswin de Fierlant and the Enlightened Codification of Criminal Law (Dutch) [B 4.08, 12:30] March 31, 2025 : Prof. Dr. Lauréline Fontaine (Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle) on The Constitution as a Social Fetish (English, Legal Theory Seminar) [C 4.09, 16:00] – For more information, contact Prof. Dr. Laurent De Sutter April 1, 2025 : Book presentation Coudenberg. Th...

  (image source: SOAS ) On 7 February, Dr. Stefano Cattelan will present at the symposium Freedom of the Seas and Individual Freedom, 15th-19th Centuries , organized at the School for Oriental and African Studies (University of London), funded by the British Academy. More information here .

Our colleagues of the Centre d'histoire du droit et d'anthropologie juridique  (ULB) have a vacancy for one fulltime academic assistant, the mandate starts on 1 October 2025. Read more here .

Prior to the creation of this website, the Research Group Contextual Research in Law (created in 2013 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) had a site announcing events, publications... As a complement to the information listed on the present website (which started in March 2022), the list below gives an overview of our activities since. For a list of PhD defenses, see here . 2012-2013 Conference 'Inheritance, patrimonial rights and blended families: confronting past and present' (KVAB, 23 November 2012) Nowadays the newly composed or blended family is a widespread phenomenon. Nonetheless, it still defies jurists, and particularly with regard to the legal relationship between children from a former relationship on the one hand side, and the new partner of their parent and his/her siblings on the other. The transition of (parts of) an estate from one family to the next and the patrimonial rights of members of former families vis-à-vis those of new ones, are crucial issues. Since 19...