SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM: The Worlds of Pre-Modern Neutrality (ca. 1400-1800): Norms, Institutions and Practices (Antwerp: Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, 8-9 MAY 2025)

  

The Worlds of Pre-Modern Neutrality (ca. 1400-1800):

Norms, Institutions and Practices

 Antwerp, Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library - 8-9 May 2025

 

Convened by Stefano Cattelan & Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

 

Supported by FWO Junior Fundamental Research Project G016122N, In the Shadow of the Great Powers: Freedom of the Sea and Neutrality in the Long Eighteenth Century (2024-2026) 

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(image source: Conscience Heritage Library)

DAY 1 (May 8)

Hendrik Conscienceplein 4, 2000 ANTWERP (Nottebohm Room)

9:30 – 9:45 - Welcoming

              Stefano Cattelan & Frederik Dhondt

 

9:45 – 10:45 - Keynote n.1:

              Silvia Marzagalli (Université Côte d’Azur)

10:45 – 11:00: Coffee break

 

11:00 – 12:15 - Panel I 

11:00  11:20	Ubaldo Morozzi (PhD, independent scholar):             ‘The Great Duke knows how to excuse ingaging himselfe and seemes resolved to remayne neutral’. The system of Tuscan neutrality, 1642–1721
11:20  11:40	Bastien Carpentier (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3):              Construire l’autonomie par la neutralité. L’action des repubblichisti de Gênes à l’encontre des Habsbourg d’Espagne (1560-1650)
11:40  12:00	Dorian Varenne (Sorbonne Université):             Un pape neutre? Principe et réalité de la notion de padre comune à l’ère post-tridentine
12:00  12:15	Discussion

 

12:15 – 13:30: Lunch 

13:30 – 14:45 - Panel II 

13:30  13:50	Louis Sicking (University of Leiden/VU Amsterdam):            The (im)possibility of neutrality. Prize Law in legal practice and politics during the war between the Habsburg Netherlands and Denmark-Norway prior to the Peace of Speyer
13:50  14:10	Stefano Cattelan (Vrije Universiteit Brussel):           Between the devil and the deep sea: Venetian neutrality amidst the Bourbon-Habsburg confrontation (1688-1714)
14:10  14:30	Géraud Poumarède (Sorbonne Université):             Négocier la neutralité en temps de guerre: Venise dans la guerre de Succession d'Autriche
14:30  14:45	Discussion

 14:45 – 16:00 - Panel III

14:45 15:05	Roeland Goorts (Thomas More University of Applied Sciences):             The Neutrality of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège
15:05  15:25	Julien Régibeau (Université de Liège and KU Leuven):             Comparer l’incomparable ? Neutralités pontificale et liégeoise en pratique (XVIe-XVIIe siècles)
15:25  15:45	Antoine Leclère (University of Liege/FRS-FNRS and Vrije Universiteit Brussel):             Une rupture de la neutralité liégeoise? Négocier la levée d’un régiment français dans la principauté de Liège à la veille de la Révolution (1787-1788)
15:45  16:00	Discussion

  

16:00 – 16:15: Coffee break

 

16:15 – 17:30 - Panel IV

16:15  16:35	Matheus Vila Nova (École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL, Paris):             Du Mare Clausum à l’art de la Neutralité: la transformation de la politique étrangère portugaise (1625-1666)
16:35  16:55	Mathias Karlsmose (Stockholm University):             Shaky Neutrality: The Danish East India Company and the Dutch-Portuguese War in Asia, 1620-1655
16:55  17:05	Emmanuel Lemée (Université de Picardie Jules Verne):             L’Angleterre en quête de neutralité (1660-1689)
17:05  17:20	Discussion

 

19:00 – Dinner

 

 

 

DAY 2 (May 9)

10:00 – 11:00: Keynote n. 2:

              Éric Schnakenbourg (University of Nantes)

 

11:00 – 11:15: Coffee break

 

11:15 – 12:30 - Panel V 

11:15  11:35	Joshua Meeks (US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island):             Weapons of the Strong? Great Powers Strategy and Small Power Neutrality in the late 18th Century
11:35  11:55	Erik de Lange (Utrecht University):             Neutral in the Face of Revolution: Traditions of Neutrality and the 1820s Challenge
11:55  12:10	Discussion

 

12:10 – 13:10: Lunch 

 

13:10 – 14 :25 - Panel VI 

13:10  13:30	Daniel R. Quiroga Villamarín (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law):             ‘For the Sake of Friends’: Obligations Owed to Allies as a Justification for Violence in International Legal Thought
13:30  13:50	Izidor Janžekovič (Central European University):             The Balance of Sea Power in the Revolutionary Era
13:50  14:10	Andreas Häckermann (University of Erfurt):             The (Im-)Partial Leviathan Neutrality in Carl Schmitt’s Remarks on the Early Modern State
14:10  14:35	Discussion

 

 

14:35 – 15:10: Outlook and conclusions

 

15:30 – 17:00: Visit of the Plantin Moretus Museum

Vrijdagmarkt 22, 2000 ANTWERP

Attendance can be confirmed with stefano dot cattelan at vub dot be.