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CHAPTER: Raphaël CAHEN, "Joseph Marie Portalis (1778–1858) as Advocate of Constitutional Monarchism", in: The Making of Modern Atlantic Monarchies, vol. 1: The Invention and Establishment of Conservative Monarchies, 1770-1900 (eds. Carolina ARMENTEROS, Matthijs LOK & Iason ZARIKOS) (London: Bloomsbury/Hart, 2025)

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  (image source: Bloomsbury ) Dr. Raphaël Cahen contributed a chapter on "Joseph Marie Portalis (1778–1858) as Advocate of Constitutional Monarchism". On the volume: This two-volume study sees contributors from the UK, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Singapore and ten countries from across mainland Europe analyse how monarchy has been theorized and implemented in the Atlantic world from the birth of conservatism during the French Revolution to the present day. Using monarchy as a lens, it also provides an original exploration of how conservatism, often branded as reactive, can be viewed as a continual response to, and reinterpretation of, pivotal social and political events over the longue durée. The Making of Modern Atlantic Monarchies shows that 1789, the Bourbons' return, the 1848 revolutions, the US Civil War, World War I, the rise and fall of fascism and other events became catalysts that triggered conservative thought and waves of traditionalist renovations - often posing...

BOOK REVIEW: Raphaël CAHEN, "The Holy Alliance. Liberalism and the Politics of Federation, written by Isaac Nakhimovsky" (Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international) [ADVANCE ARTICLE]

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(image source: Brill ) First paragraph: La seconde monographie d’Isaac Nakhimovsky, professeur associé au département d’histoire à Yale, était très attendue. Il faut rappeler que sa thèse de doctorat effectuée à l’Université de Harvard (2008) avait été publié en 2011 sous le titre The Closed Commercial State: Perpetual Peace and Commercial Society from Rousseau to Fichte. Cette étude d’histoire de la pensée politique s’inscrivait dans les pas de l’école de Cambridge où Nakhimovsky séjourna pendant six années en tant que Research Fellow (2008-2014). Read more here: 10.1163/15718050-bja10140 .  

CONFERENCE: Belgisch-Nederlandse Rechtshistorische Dagen (Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit, 27-28 NOV 2025)

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  (image source: ESCLH Blog ) drs. Antoine Leclère , drs. Rodrick Van der Smissen and Prof. Frederik Dhondt will present at the Belgisch-Nederlandse Rechtshistorische Dagen  (Nijmegen, 27-28 November 2025). More information here .

BOOK: Laurent DE SUTTER, Superweak: Thinking in the 21st Century [transl. Robert HUGHES] (Cambridge: Polity, 2025), 256 p. € 21,99 (paperback)

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  (image source: Polity ) Prof. Laurent De Sutter's Superfaible has been translated to English by Roberg Hughes and is available with Polity Books (Cambridge). Abstract: We have become superheroes. Nothing can resist us anymore: not persons, ideas, facts, realities, or beings. We owe our superhuman strength to a tool we have taken up that submits everything to the scrutiny of our judgment: critique. After its first formulation at the end of the sixteenth century, the project of critique spread from one sphere to another until it became almost universal: we have all of us been transformed by our equal capacity to judge, approve, and reject. If modernity is defined as the journey we have taken to move away from the myths and dogmas of the past, then critique, with its emphasis on reason and the autonomy of judgment, has been the lynchpin of modernity.Today, however, the critical project shows signs of exhaustion. We are beginning to realize that being right is useless, now that every...

EVENT: 50 ans de Perspectives critiques (with Laurent DE SUTTER) (Brussels: Tropismes, 25 NOV 2025)

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  (image source: allevents.in ) More information here .

CANCELLED: Seminar with Prof. Lorraine DASTON (19 NOV 2025)

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  (image source:  Wikimedia Commons ) Due to ill health, we regretfully have to cancel the CORE Legal Theory Seminar with Prof. Lorraine Daston, foreseen for tomorrow at 12:00.

BOOK REVIEW: Eliana AUGUSTI on Raphaël CAHEN et al. (dir.), Relations internationales et droit(s) (Paris: Pedone, 2024) (Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international)

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  (image source: Brill ) dr. Raphaël Cahen 's co-edited volume Relations internationales et droit(s)  (Paris: Pedone, 2024) was reviewed for the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international  (Brill) by prof. Eliana Augusti (Salento). Read the advance article here: DOI  10.1163/15718050-bja10138 .