VUB Contextual Research in Law

  (City Plan of Toulon, 1840. Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Prof. dr.  Frederik Dhondt , Prof. dr. Dave de Ruysscher , dr.  Stefano Cattelan , dr. Raphael Cahen and dr. Elisabeth Bruyère   will present papers at the Journées internationales de la Société d’histoire du droit in Toulon.  Consult the conference website  here .

  (Source: GRN.global )  "Emerging Normativities: Creative Complicity at the New Governance Frontier"  Introduction This talk looks closer at political experimentation and jurisdictional design at what is increasingly referred to as the new governance frontier. Leaving aside the historicity every presumed “newness” carries within, contemporary phenomena such as climate change (and its differential materialization), raging political and military conflicts, growing mistrust in  in representational governments, and the return to authoritarian regimes are indeed radically shifting the physical and social conditions of existence on planet Earth, opening up frontier spaces in which the question of what it means to govern and being governed is renegotiated. As Rassmusen and Lund pointedly argue, frontier dynamics dissolve existing social orders—property systems, political jurisdictions, rights, and social contracts. Intensifying these dynamics is digital technology, particu...

  (image source:  Sjöhistoriska Samfundet  ) Dr.  Stefano Cattelan  published a book review on ' David Wilson, Suppressing Piracy in the Early Eighteenth Century. Pirates, Merchants and British Imperial Authority in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans’ in  Forum Navale, the journal of  The Swedish Society for Maritime History,   81 (2024), 177-179. The book review can be consulted open access on the journal's website .

(Source:  eventbrite.co.uk ) On 4 June 2024,  drs. João Tiago Freitas Mendes (FCT/VUB) will present his work on " non-commercial sociability " at the Workshop:   Law, Anarchism and Destituent Power: The State’s Monopoly of Violence, in the Senate House Building in London. Abstract of the presentation: "Past works referred to legal sociability are of various kinds. Some are normativist and end up reinforcing legal power. They suggest that “humanity” and “democracy” should strive to comply with norms, as opposed to lazy animals that we don't know. Luhmann, Mollers or Forst would also be suitable examples. Sociological visions offer a theory of elitist (so-called “social”) choices and the corporate behavior of egoists. The most famous is still Bourdieu's. These are the two usual types. There are others that are just well-meaning appeals. It is against these that the more sophisticated approaches mentioned above have emerged. They usually boil down to saying that law...

(Source:  classiques garnier.com ) dr. Raphaël Cahen  contributed a chapter on "Les juristes internationalistes, les affaires étrangères et l’opinion publique (1789-1830)" in Le Pouvoir en procès. Opinion publique et légitimité politique des Lumières au Premier Empire , edited by Maximilien NOVAK and Ryan BROWN. Summary:  "Cet article étudie le rapport entre l’opinion publique et les jurisconsultes employés dans les ministères des affaires étrangères dans une perspective comparée. Il analyse le cas particulier de la France dans les années 1789-1830 et la manière dont les jurisconsultes du ministère des Affaires étrangères (Pfeffel, Rosenstiel, Rayneval, Guerard, Hauterive, Haller) ont été des acteurs, juges et censeurs de l’opinion publique." More information:  classiques garnier.