VUB Contextual Research in Law

  (image source: ESCLH blog ) Dr. Wiebe Hommes (UvA) will present his recent monograph The Convention and the Kingdom. How the Netherlands received the European Convention on Human Rights  (Cambridge University Press, 2025) on 19 March 2026  at 14:00  in the Faculty Council Room . On the book: How and why did the European Convention turn from a neglected legal tool into one of the most important human rights documents in legal practice? This book argues this remarkable development wasn't merely the result of a top-down movement initiated by the European Court, but of a far more dynamic process in which the national and European spheres engaged in constant co-creation. Focusing on the Netherlands and uncovering little known archival sources, it lays bare how the Convention was received over time throughout the entire Kingdom. In doing so, it incorporates insight into how European human rights were perceived in Europe and beyond. A much more varied story comes to ligh...

  (image: view from Poelaertplein; source: Wikimedia Commons ) At the occasion of the English translation of Superfaible  (PUF) with Polity (cf. earlier on this blog), Prof. Laurent De Sutter will debate with Lynn Tytgat in The Merode on 3 March 2026. More details here .

Abstract: The cosmopolitan distinctiveness of José Rodrigues Miguéis' (1901-1980) work in Portuguese literature invites new perspectives on his writing. Lisbon, Brussels, and New York are objective stages in a body of work that sought to highlight the “cases of life” as a journalist of the accidental, particular manifestations of human suffering. Foreign to the esprit de corps of literary movements, sympathetic to the Herculean fortune of the disadvantaged, Miguéis was able to find the geographical and political conditions for an art liberated from national convention Contact: Joao dot Tiago dot Freitas dot Mendes at vub dot be

    (image source ( ACFHAB ) The Conference of Historical and Archaeological Societies of Belgium, which held its most recent assembly in  Tournai  in August 2021 and started its cycle in 1889, will convene at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels from  20 to 23 August 2026 , with the support of the French-Speaking Community of Belgium, the Académie Royale de Belgique, urban.brussels, and the City of Brussels. The  section for institutional and legal history  (presided by Prof. em. Jean-Marie Cauchies/ARB; vice-presidents: dr. Marc Ronvaux, Prof.  Frederik Dhondt ; secretary: dr. Nicolas Simon) welcomes proposals by  6 April 2026 .  Any  topic in institutional and legal history  may be presented, in  French, Dutch or German . The call is also open to recent graduates who have completed their MA thesis. Abstracts ought to count  20 lines . Those interested in presenting can contact frederik dot dhondt at vub dot be....

  (image source: Herder ) Abstract: ¡Me decepcionaste! ¿Quién podría recuperarse de semejante acusación? ¿Y quién, además, no ha recurrido a ella alguna vez? Somos seres que no dejamos de decepcionar y de ser decepcionados. Sin embargo, los moralistas lo han repetido hasta la saciedad: decepcionarse es, sobre todo, ser víctima de expectativas que solo existían en nuestra cabeza.Pero, ¿qué pasaría si eso no fuera todo?, se pregunta el autor en estas páginas. ¿Y si tras la danza de la esperanza y la decepción, de las expectativas y su frustración, se desplegara un verdadero orden del mundo que decidiera por nosotros lo que podemos y lo que no podemos hacer? ¿Y si decepcionar fuera, sobre todo, una forma de escapar de ello? Entonces, decepcionar sería un placer. On the author: Laurent de Sutter (Bruselas, 1977) es profesor de Teoría Legal en la Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Ha sido investigador invitado en universidades de Estados Unidos, Alemania y Japón. Es miembro del comité editoria...

International Conference: Contested Seas: War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the Sea (c. 1400–1800) 19-20 November 2026, Ostend, Belgium Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Campus Ostend / Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) Conveners : Stefano Cattelan & Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Faculty of Law and Criminology, Research Group CORE) Keynote speakers :  Surabhi Ranganathan (Lauterpacht Centre, University of Cambridge) Indravati Félicité (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) Concept and Rationale: The early modern law of the sea did not emerge as a coherent or pacified body of rules. Rather, it took shape as a fragmented and deeply contested legal regime. It was forged through recurrent warfare, commercial rivalry, and persistent struggles over jurisdiction and enforcement at sea. The pelagic arena was characterised by o verlapping jurisdictions, uneven enforcement, and profound asymmetries of power (Benton, 2010). The freedom of the s...