VUB Contextual Research in Law

  Enjoy the end of the year, and see you for a fresh start in 2024!

  Prof. Laurent Desutter, Prof. Dave De ruysscher, Prof. Frederik Dhondt, Prof. Jean-Marc Piret and Prof. Niels van Dijk (co-editor) contributed chapters to the Liber Amicorum  of Prof. Serge Gutwirth. The chapters can be downloaded for free on the publisher's website. More information with the publisher .

  (image source: PHEDRA ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher is a member of the panel of the PHEDRA Summer School organised in Spain this Summer. Call: The International Research Network I.R.N. PHEDRA organizes its second summer school in La Rábida (Palos de la Frontera, Spain) on 25-28 June 2024. Following the basis of the first summer school, the purpose of the event is to provide an exceptional opportunity to the participants to present their ongoing research before a group of specialists in commercial legal history matters, in order to generate fruitful discussions resulting in valuable feedback that will enrich and improve their work. PHEDRA project concerns the  history of business law, from Antiquity to the present day, focusing on norms and practices that developed around Europe  to support commerce and business exchange which led to the transformation of societies and gave commercial law its features. The project is particularly interested on the sources we use to trace an...

  The Royal Commission for the Publication of Old Laws and Ordinances  launches its brand-new blog today. Prof. De ruysscher and Prof. Dhondt (president) are members of this organ, instated by Royal Decree in April 1846 by King Leopold I of the Belgians.  Student-researchers Max Van den Bosch and Senne De Kerpel redacted biographical notes on two top jurists who served as the Commission's presidents: Matthieu Leclercq (1796-1889) and Charles Faider (1811-1893) . The blog will regularily communicate on the commission's members and on its past (digital) publications, besides announcing new volumes.

    To the Left of Law Introduction At the crossroads between sociology and history, the work of Liora Israël shows that the period which extends from May 68 to the arrival of the left in power in France in 1981 is a pivotal moment in relations between law and politics. It addresses trajectories of lawyers and magistrates, a selection of major trials and the history of the birth of judicial unionism, as well as debates on the organization of law firms and the many controversies relating to the social role of prisons, mobilizations in favor of immigrants or for the legalization of abortion. All these questions, at the heart of every critical reflection on law as ideology in the service of dominant interests at the time, have constituted as many milestones in the formation of a "left of law", whose heritage continues to mark contemporary French society. By focusing on the role of lawyers and justice thanks to unpublished interviews and many archives, this work aims at renewing ...

(image source: LGDJ ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher contributed a chapter to the edited volume Dynamique juridique des réseaux marchands. Hanses, nations, agences, filiales et comptoirs. Consult the table of contents here .

  Hannah Arendt - Academische ontmoetingsdag Academische ontmoetingsdag voor filosofen, agogen, juristen, politicologen, beleidsmakers en -verantwoordelijken, academici en studenten (Donderdag 14 december 2023) Op donderdag 14 december 2023 organiseert De Debatten (VUB en Universiteit Leiden) met het Hannah Arendt instituut een studiedag over Hannah Arendt. De studiedag gaat door in Mechelen.  Hannah Arendt was een filosofe die ‘in dialoog dacht’. De focus van de studiedag gaat daarom uit naar de denkers die Arendt beïnvloed hebben en naar de invloed die van Hannah Arendt uitgaat op actuele denkers en thema’s & uitdagingen.  De Debatten nodigt academici uit binnen- en buitenland uit voor een Nederlandstalige, Franstalige of Engelstalige uiteenzetting op deze studiedag (met voorkeur voor Nederlands). PhD’s en jonge academici worden aangemoedigd om deel te nemen. Het kan gaan om alle aspecten van het werk van Hannah Arendt en van de mensen rond deze filosofe.  Na d...

(image source: RW ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher published an article in open access in the journal Quaderni Storici, as part of a special issue "Risk Management and Jurisdictional Boundaries in Pre-Modern Europe" (ed. Maria Fusaro). Abstract: This article investigates the rules of jurisdiction that were applied in the case of damages in maritime transport. The focus is on traffic in one of the main riverine estuaries of the Low Countries, over the rivers Honte and Scheldt. In the course of the fifteenth century the governments of the county of Flanders and the duchy of Brabant had come to embrace a more exclusive notion of jurisdiction on rivers, which comprised the idea of precise demarcations. In practice, however, this new approach did not bring about more clarity. Uncertainty as to which forum would hear disputes on riverine shipping accidents marked a risk of trade. Among merchants and shipmasters, choice of jurisdiction was common, which happened after mishaps and was not ...

  (image source: Springer ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher co-edited a special issue and authored an article on "The Rule of Law in Cities of the Medieval Low Countries: Community-Building in Context" in the Hague Journal of the Rule of Law  (Springer).  CORE-doctores Niels Fieremans (2023 and Marco in 't Veld (2022) equally authored contributions in this issue. Prof. De ruysscher and dr. in 't Veld's articles (as well as the introduction) are available in open access. More information here .

  Dr. Raphaël Cahen and dr. Wouter De Rycke organised a symposium on peace and legal argumentation on 15 September, for which Prof. Martti Koskenniemi (honorary doctor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) held a public keynote lecture. The recording of this lecture can be consulted on our Youtube-channel, or above. 

(image source: ZNR ) Abstract: The historiography on commercial law in Europe for the later Middle Ages and early modern period has greatly changed over the course of two centuries. A decisive moment was the recalibration of commercial law to a law of merchants, at the end of the nineteenth century. The category of merchant became dominant. This resulted in a perspective that mercantile law existed outside the framework of the state and beyond the reach of jurists. Looking at the coming into being of these views allows to see paths for scholarship on the theme in the future. Read the article here: DOI 10.5771/0250-6459-2023-1

(image source: EUTopia ) The EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History: Connectedness in Legal History (VUB, CY Paris, Ljubljana, Nova Lisboa, Warwick) will convene in Brussels  for its peak event (2023-2024) on 14-15 March 2024 . Students from every institution are enrolled in this connected cross-campus, student-driven and multilingual learning environment. At the end of the road, they produce a virtual exhibition  (as in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 ).  More information on the CoLeCo's blog .