PAST EVENTS: CORE 2013-2022

Prior to the creation of this website, the Research Group Contextual Research in Law (created in 2013 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) had a site announcing events, publications... As a complement to the information listed on the present website (which started in March 2022), the list below gives an overview of our activities since. For a list of PhD defenses, see here.

2012-2013

Conference 'Inheritance, patrimonial rights and blended families: confronting past and present' (KVAB, 23 November 2012)

Nowadays the newly composed or blended family is a widespread phenomenon. Nonetheless, it still defies jurists, and particularly with regard to the legal relationship between children from a former relationship on the one hand side, and the new partner of their parent and his/her siblings on the other. The transition of (parts of) an estate from one family to the next and the patrimonial rights of members of former families vis-à-vis those of new ones, are crucial issues. Since 1981, in Belgium, the inheritance estate, including the personal properties and the part of the matrimonial community pertaining to the deceased, is not distributed and remains under bare trust (usufruct) for the benefit of the surviving spouse if there are children. Even in case of a subsequent remarriage, these descendants remain entitled so-called ‘nude’ proprietors of the inheritance estate and they can query for a transformation of usufruct into ‘full’ ownership for parts of the inheritance. However, these rules do not apply in case of divorce or when another relationship than marriage between partners, having children, is ended and their communal properties are divided. Contractual arrangements often provide solutions. Nonetheless questions remain, for example as to whether it is still feasible to grant the surviving spouse extensive rights of bare trust as a principle by law, and whether more legal rights should be given to descendants in this respect. There are historical parallels. Before the age of codifications of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in the Low Countries and elsewhere, rules protected children out of a first marriage that had ended because of the death of one of the spouses. In case of remarriage of their parent, it was assured that their part in the estate – which the surviving parent could keep in many cases – remained intact. In Eastern Brabant, the droit de dévolution applied, which was strict in the sense that it froze the situation at the death of a parent. In Flanders, rights of the widow or widower in this respect were usually more limited. In both areas, in the middle ages and early modern period, the fate of immovable property was very important: it often came from the kin, and under some circumstances it was due to return to the family from which it had come. The colloquium will confront historical examples and rules with those that are being applied today. Legal historians will detail the context in which the mentioned norms existed and their consequences, for different places in continental Western Europe. Lawyers specializing in positive matrimonial property law, inheritance law and family law will shed light on the contents and lacunae in contemporary law and legal practice in Belgium and the Netherlands. The colloquium seeks to promote further research into these matters. It equally aims at reviving the tradition of legal- historical research into old family law (in the broad sense), which in the 1960s was vibrant at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, under the impetus of the late professor John Gilissen.

Papers published by Maklu (eds. Dave De ruysscher/Elisabeth Alofs) in (ISBN 9789046606063)

Rechtspreken en lekenparticipatie: noodzaak of traditie? (8 February 2013)

Rechtspraak door niet-magistraten beroert regelmatig de publieke opinie, en dan vooral met betrekking tot juryrechtspraak. Vaak spitsen de discussies in de media en onder beleidsmakers inzake participatie in rechtspraak door 'leken' – de term verwijst doorgaans naar juryleden of naar rechters die geen beroepsmagistraten zijn – zich toe op strafzaken, en met name op het hof van assisen. In de aanloop naar ophefmakende

Proceedings published by Maklu in 2013 (Rechtspreken en lekenparticipatie. Noodzaak of traditie?, ed. Dave De ruysscher), ISBN 9789046605868.

2013-2014

L&C Talk "Diplomacy and Practical Legal Argumentation. Challenges for the History of International Law" (dr. Frederik Dhondt, Universiteit Gent) (9 December 2013), at the invitation of Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

MRG Talk, prof. Laurent Desutter (VUB) ‘The obscenity of law, or, why is pornography's legacy worth fighting for’ (16 December 2013)

L&C Talk, Stefan Huygebaert (Ghent University), 'Aensien doet ghedenken in fin de siècle Belgium. The decoration projects for the Brussels Palais de Justice (1883-1914)’ (24 March 2014), at the invitation of prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

Conference 'The humanist thought of Benjamin Constant' (24 April 2014)

Since 2011, VUB, Leiden University and deBuren co-organize workshops on important legal authors of the past. They bring together legal philosophers, legal historians and others and they highlight different aspects of the work of the author that is studied. Following successful events dedicated to Tocqueville (2011) and Rousseau (2012), this workshop will be devoted to Benjamin Constant.

Acta published by Pelckmans (eds. Paul De Hert, Andreas Kinneging & Maarten Colette) in 2015, ISBN 9789028978898.

Workshop 'Historiography and sources of commercial law' (1-3 September 2014), organised by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

The workshop is the first in a series on the history of commercial law, organized during the 2014-2017 period in Helsinki, Brussels, Fiskars and Frankfurt. The conferences will be organized in the framework of the project 'The making of commercial law: common practices and national legal rules from the early modern period to the modern period'.

2014-2015

Doctoral seminar ‘The trouble with custom’ (3 October 2014)

Historians of all types take for granted that something called "custom" existed. Then they use the term lazily, as did people in the pre-modern era, to refer to many types of legal rules and norms. But if we take seriously the Roman law definition adopted by the medieval jurists that custom is repeated behavior over time to which the majority of the community has tacitly consented to be bound, then how did this custom work? How was it formed? How did it evolve over time? What effect did writing have on it? What was its relationship to enacted and learned law? Is the Roman concept of custom and its reality in practice the same as the German distinction between Gewohnheitsrecht and Rechtsgewohnheit? And, most fundamentally, did custom as defined by the Roman law actually ever exist at all? If not, why did the jurists spend so much energy debating its intricacies?

Meeting 'Romanistenkring' (Association of Belgian-Dutch Roman Law Professors) (25 October 2014)

VUB/ULB (Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher)

Belgian-Dutch legal history colloquium (11–12 December 2014)

It is a fixed custom that Belgian and Dutch universities take turns to organize the biannual Belgian-Dutch Legal History Conference. On 11 and 12 December 2014 the twenty-first edition of this conference was held at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The conference traditionally serves as a platform for ongoing legal-historical research and it provides a forum for presentations by young scholars. This book bundles the papers that were presented at the Brussels conference and which are the outcome of a process of double-blind peer review. 

Proceedings published by Maklu in 2015 (Rechtsgeschiedenis op nieuwe wegen. Legal history, moving in new directions, eds. Dave De ruysscher, Brecht Deseure, Kaat Cappelle, Maarten Collette, Gorik Van Assche), ISBN 978-90-466-0758-9. 

Workshop 'The small, medium-sized and large company in law and economic practice (middle ages-nineteenth century)' (21-22 May 2015), organised by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

The goal of this workshop is to bring together scholars who have worked on business ventures, and to address law and economic practice from the Middle Ages until c. 1900. We particularly invite for papers that assess differences with regard to the size of partnerships and companies. Over the past years, more attention has been paid to limited and general partnerships and to organizational laws containing models for small enterprises (e.g. the GmbH). It seems that both in legal and economic practice, and for all periods mentioned, smaller companies mattered more than was previously thought, and even in periods in which corporations existed. In view of this, many ideas about larger companies can be reconsidered. Topics that can be addressed with regard to small, medium-sized and/or large companies are a.o. legal personhood, limited liability, corporate finance, and corporate governance. The workshop is the second in a series on the history of commercial law, organized during the 2014-2017 period in Helsinki, Brussels, Fiskars and Frankfurt. The conferences will be organized in the framework of the project 'The making of commercial law: common practices and national legal rules from the early modern period to the modern period'.

XVIIth World Economic History Congress ‘Diversity in Development’, Kyoto (7 August 2015) (prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher)

The willingness of creditors to lend and debtors to borrow is predicated in part on penalties for non-compliance. If they are too lax, creditors might not want to lend, and if too draconian, borrows might not want to borrow. As a result the treatment of failure has implications for economic growth and technological progress in terms of the number of new entrepreneurs. Mercantile trade depends on credit and if that credit is not forthcoming trade, both national and international, will shrink, as has been experienced yet again in the current financial crisis. The trend since the early twentieth century has been toward greater state involvement and third-party enforcement. The current crisis, however, has thrown into sharp relief the vast diversity in treatment of insolvent debtors. In some countries such as England and the United States, exit from bankruptcy can occurs within a year, while in others such as Germany and Japan exit from bankruptcy can take many years. The panel shows both that state-involvement is nothing new and that private-order norms and community-based systems still play a role. Papers explore the diversity of solutions to insolvency that have developed from state-enforced rights to private order norms and from third-party enforcement to community-based systems. They examine situations of insolvency and bankruptcy across time focusing on the treatment of creditors and insolvent debtors across the centuries from experiences in the fifteen to eighteenth centuries and in the more recent past of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The panel also reveals how treatment of creditors and insolvent debtors depends on the nature of state-enforced institutions and of private order institutions across a range of countries: England, France, Belgium, Germany, the Caribbean, and China.

2015-2016

CORE research meeting, prof. Frederik Dhondt (VUB), ‘Trade, diplomacy and legal discourse in Western Europe, 1700-1725’ (5 October 2015), at the invitation of Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

Panel ‘Codification of European private law: a critical and comparative analysis’ (31 October 2015) American Society for Legal History Conference, Washington DC (Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher)

This panel explores codification of European private law in a critical and comparative way. Critically, because all papers depart from common places and analyze them in critical way, without taking them for granted. First, theoretically, codes aim at fixing solutions in the form of official law; however, is this compatible with the need for change in the mercantile practice? In analyzing the tension between both tendencies, the 1807 Code de commerce is carefully studied. Secondly, it is commonly accepted the hypothesis that a uniform instrument alone will significantly stimulate cross-border trade; however, will facts give evidence of this?. thirdly, it is common place that codes are the expression of legal positivism and sought complete legal unification; are these ideas accurate? In answering this question, the French and Spanish models are analyzed, dispelling some myths and misunderstandings on the notion of codification in general, and on the Spanish civil code in particular. The comparative approach to European codification is both geographically and chronologically; geographically, because several jurisdictions are studied (France, Germany and Spain); and chronologically, because all papers connect 19th-century codification with current issues (e.g. the possible success of a Common European Sales Law in stimulating cross-border trade, or the subsidiary application of the Spanish civil code).

L&C Talk Prof. dr. Pierre-Olivier de Broux (USL) on '25 years of Brussels regional law' (16 November 2015)

25 years of law production in the youngest Belgian political entity have been celebrated with a collection of essays, numbering more than 1600 pages. The book bundles analyses by 52 legal experts, covering nearly every aspect of recent Brussels law. The presentation of this book will focus on the conclusions made by Hugues Dumont, which mainly concern the evolution of Brussels law, the sources of Brussels law, and the difficulties and challenges encountered. It will be illustrated through the topic of public economic law.

MRG Talk, Amélie Verfaillie (Ghent University), ‘Amnesty International and the United Nations. Professionalization of an early relation' (14 December 2015)

A thorough analysis of the relationship between the most important international organization, the United Nations, and the most international human rights NGO, Amnesty International, based on the archives of Amnesty’s International Secretariat in London, has not yet been conducted. Nonetheless, since Amnesty’s founding in 1961, it has regularly interacted with the UN to try to influence international human rights law. The general purpose is to study this relation from a legal historical angle from 1961 until present. The presentation will focus on the early years of this relation, amongst others, through a case study of the drafting process of the International Convention Against Torture (1984).

MRG Talk Maarten Colette on 'Rousseau, Montesquieu's stubborn reader' (18 January 2016)

Montesquieu is commonly regarded as a precursor of liberal theory of freedom who took it for granted that ancient freedoms were out of tune with modern society. By writing Montesquieu out of the republican canon recent scholarship has failed to underscore that Montesquieu's concept of liberty allows for a multi-layered and positive societal ideal beyond merely assuming liberty as freedom from interference in the pursuit of self-centered behaviour.

MRG Talk, Ans Vervaeke (VUB), 'Explaining the Great Litigation Decline in the 18th Century' (7 March 2016), at the invitation of prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

Examination of civil court archives of different European regions has revealed a steep decline in litigation during the eighteenth century. Despite several suggestions, the reasons for this shrinkage are not yet clear-cut. Ms Ans Vervaeke hypothesizes that social and economic transformations, which will be investigated through examination of shifts in the social profiles of litigants, can render new insights.

Symposium 'Constitutional Precedence as Keystone of Modern Constitutionalism' [ERC ReConFort] (14 March 2016, KVAB)

Thanks to voluntary associate dr. Brecht Deseure and the Committee for Legal History of the Royal Flemish Commission for the Arts and Sciences, this symposium hosted the team of the ERC Advanced Grant ReConFort (prof. Ulrike Müssig, Passau). Prof. Frederik Dhondt presented a paper.

Proceedings have been published in an open access volume by Springer (ed. U. Müssig), ISBN 978-3-319-73037-0

MRG Talk, Annemieke Romein (Erasmus University Rotterdam), 'Gute Policey in the Netherlands (Gelderland) (17th Century)' (11 April 2016)

In this lecture Ms Annemieke Romein demonstrates that research into Policeygeschichte in the Low Countries is useful, presenting a case study of Gelderland, and discussing a planned comparative study of Holland and Flanders.

Conference Edmund Burke (21 April 2016, Leiden University)

Since 2011, VUB, Leiden University and deBuren co-organize workshops on important legal authors of the past. They bring together legal philosophers, legal historians and others and they highlight different aspects of the work of the author that is studied. Following successful events dedicated to Tocqueville (2011), Rousseau (2012), Constant (2014) and Montesquieu (2015) this workshop will be devoted to Edmund Burke.

Acta published by ASP in 2017 (eds. Andreas Kinneging, Paul De Hert, Maarten Colette). Conference program here. See here for the recordings of the debate linked to the book presentation.

Book launch Montesquieu (26 April 2016, de Buren)

Presentation of the acta of the deDebatten-symposium on Montesquieu, published by Vrijdag (eds. Andreas Kinneging/Paul De Hert/Maarten Colette), ISBN 9789460014727

MRG Talk, Gabriela Frei (Oxford University), 'The concept of freedom of the seas in the context of the First World War' (2 May 2016), at the invitation of prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt

International Days of the Society for Legal and Institutional History of Flanders, Picardy and Wallonia (6-7 May 2016, co-organisation with USL, ULB, KMS, KVAB/Committee for Legal History): gens de robe, gens de guerre. 

Program here.

Acta published in the C@hiers du CRhiDI 41 (2018) (eds. Eric Bousmar, Philippe Desmette & Stanislas Horvat), here.

MRG Talk, Gorik Van Assche (VUB), 'Bankruptcy Entanglements in 19th Century Belgium. Looking Awry in the Historian’s Laboratory' (6 June 2016)

Panels'Axiological Constitutionalism II: 19th-Century Identity Building' and 'Commercial Law in Europe: of Glaciers, Codes, Merchants and Customers', Biennial Conference  of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (Gdansk, 30 June 2016)

Chair/paper by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher, Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt, dr. Raphaël Cahen, dr. Brecht Deseure.

CORE Doctoral School October 2016 (17 October 2016): Tutorial on PhD research by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher.

2016-2017

CORE Doctoral School November 2016 (7 November 2016): Tutorial on PhD methodology by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher.

CORE Doctoral School February 2017 (13 February 2017): Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher on chartered companies.

MRG Talk Quentin Verreycken (UCL/Saint-Louis) (27 March 2017)

"Regulating the King’s Grace. The Royal Pardon Legislation in Late Medieval England and France", at the invitation of Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher and Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt.

CORE Doctoral School April 2017 (18 April 2017)

Talk by Kaat Cappelle on her dissertation.

DeDebatten symposium The Federalist Papers (20 April 2017, Belgian Senate): co-organised by Maarten Colette

Program here. Acta published by Damon as De federalist papers: bakermat van het moderne constitutionalisme (eds. Paul De Hert, Andreas Kinneging, Maarten Colette), ISBN 9789464301371.

L&C Talk: Prof. dr. Stella Ghervas (Harvard) on Conquering Peace: from the Enlightenment to the European Union (co-organisation dr. Raphaël Cahen and POLI, faculty SS) (11 May 2017)

L&C Talk, prof. Eric Schnakenbourg (Université de Nantes), ‘The End of Neutrality During World War I: A Question Asked in the Wrong Way ?’ (15 May 2017)

Conference Training, Ideas and Practices. The Law of Nations in the Long Eighteenth Century (Paris: Fondation Biermans-Lapôtre/Maison de la Recherche, 18-19 May 2017): co-organised by Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt and dr. Raphaël Cahen (with Prof. dr. Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina/Zürich)

Call here. Acta published as special issues in the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international (here) and Clio@Thémis (here).

CORE Doctoral School June (25 June 2017)

Talk by dra. Stephanie Plasschaert on 19th Century maritime insurances in Antwerp.

CORE Doctoral School September (11 September 2017)

Paper by drs. Gijs Dreijer on the Ostend Company.

2017-2018

CORE Doctoral School October 2017 (4 October 2017)

Presentation by Kaat Cappelle

CORE Doctoral School November 2017 (13 November 2017)

Presentation by Marco in 't Veld on the Amsterdam jurisdictions in the early modern period.

Emeritaatsviering Jef Van Bellingen (14 December 2017)

Professor Jef Van Bellingen doceerde decennialang politieke filosofie en rechtsfilosofie aan de Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Hij vormde generaties filosofen en juristen door inspirerende colleges. Ter gelegenheid van zijn emeritaatsviering gaat deze huisfilosoof in debat met Professor René Foqué, Emeritus-hoogleraar rechtsfilosofie en rechtstheorie aan de KU Leuven en de Universiteit van Rotterdam. Zij debatteren over het multiculturalisme in een rechtstatelijke context, over de zin en onzin van het concept “cultuur” in multiculturalisme, over het sociale weefsel dat burgers bindt, over de plaats van het individu in het collectief en vice versa, en over het belang van op democratisch wereldburgerschap georiënteerd universitair onderwijs. Tussendoor spreken academici en studenten hun bewondering uit voor deze kleurrijke filosoof. Professor Van Bellingen zwaait af met een Liber Amicorum met twintig bijdragen van collega's, leermeesters en alumni, uitgegeven bij ASP/VUBPress.

Liber Amicorum edited by Paul De Hert and Frederik Dhondt, ISBN 9789057186929

CORE Doctoral School February 2018 (13 February 2018)

Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt on research program and some recent publications. 

WRG Talk: Prof. dr. Goedele De Keersmaecker (Ghent Institute for International Studies) (1 March 2018)

On Thursday 1 March 2018, Prof. dr. Goedele De Keersmaecker (Ghent Institute for International Studies) wil hold a talk in the Weekly Research Gatherings of the department Interdisciplinary Legal Studies (JURI). She will present her book Polarity, Balance of Power and International Relations Theory: Post-Cold War and the 19th Century compared (Palgrave, 2017). Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt will act as respondent.

Joint PhD Day USL-VUB-Lille-Ghent (23 March 2018)

Presentations by Wouter De Rycke, Stephanie Plasschaert

DeDebatten symposium Hobbes (April 2018, Leiden University)

Acta published by Damon (eds. Andreas Kinneging, Paul De Hert, Maarten Colette), ISBN 9789463402521

CORE Doctoral School April (23 April 2018)

Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt on Jean Rousset de Missy's Les Intérêts présens des puissances de l'Europe (The Hague, 1733, 2 vol. in-4°).

International Days of the Society for Legal and Institutional History of Flanders, Picardy and Wallonia (11-12 May 2018, Arras)

Acta published by the Centre d'Histoire Judiciaire (Université de Lille/CNRS), here (eds. Tanguy Le Marc'hadour, Pascal Hepner & Christian Pfister-Langanay).

Constitution Series deBuren (March-April 2018, deBuren)

Co-organised by Marco in 't Veld and Maarten Colette (France, United Kingdom, United States)

WRG Talk: André Van Brussel: Critique of Brotherhood and Solidarity. Ontology of Brotherhood, Contingency, and Human Precariousness (29 May 2018)

Darwin may have killed God and Nietzsche may have written the obituary, we did not have to wait for superman (Übermensch) to fill the vacancy. We dignified ourselves and took possession of God’s throne. This dignity of man pervades our political, legal, and moral systems. It has become the cornerstone of our concept of the rights of man. Our profession of faith is individualistic (autonomy) and liberal (freedom). We see ourselves as perfectly rational beings with direct access to and knowledge of the one and only truth. Solidarity is a mere social anaesthetic. Instead, we are fundamentally weak, unable to survive, living a precarious life on an infinitely small piece of rock in an infinite universe. We behave irrationally most of the time. Our knowledge, already by nature finite, covers only a small part of what we desperately want to know. Often autonomy turns out to be a curse and liberty an illusion. We live a contingent life in an equally contingent world. Man’s principal obsession is to come to terms, one way or another, with this contingency. The law, political institutions, moral principles are the means to achieve this. But brotherhood is the factor that makes it possible. It is our ontological status. The dignity we dream of is nothing more than empty vanity without the manifestation of the Other’s recognition and respect. Our autonomy exists only with the Other’s acknowledging it. We own each other’s liberty: freedom is not a right that belongs to us. That is the underlying narrative. Therefore, it is my objective to write the ontology of brotherhood as the foundational principle allowing man, an ontologically precarious being, to cope with contingency, his most fundamental and unsolvable problem, through laws, political institutions, and moral principles. Brotherhood instead of dignity is the inevitably and irrevocably immanent foundation of any human community. Brotherhood is the only fundamental condition for and synthesis of the pillars of the democratic state - freedom, equality, justice, and solidarity. Dignity of man is the dignity of the Other, but we cannot choose to be a brother. I will also redefine solidarity as nothing more than a derivative, subordinate, and inherently provisional corrective although it nevertheless plays a very important practical role in modern society. Unlike solidarity, brotherhood is neither a utopian nor an ideological concept. As such it provides us with a much stronger foundation for human rights than Kant’s dignity of man. The first part of my project consists in defining brotherhood and solidarity, in negative terms by delimitating them with regard to other comparable or related concepts (e.g. empathy, sympathy, altruism, friendship, generosity ea.) and in positive terms by describing their origins and manifestations, in particular the opposition between exclusive (hate) and inclusive/ universal brotherhood (love) and the way brotherhood and solidarity appear in politics. I shall then review these two concepts substantively by means of Levinas’ concepts of an asymmetrical relation between “Autrui” (Other) and “le Même” (me) to further refine my definitions. The outcome of this analysis allows to review role and impact of these two concepts with regard to politics, ethics, and the law. Some of the main questions to be answered are: how do brotherhood and our legal system relate to each other? How does it impact our laws, political institutions, and moral thinking? What is the exact relation between brotherhood and the welfare state’s public solidarity? Is universal brotherhood from a political point of view a Utopia or an ideology? Under which circumstances and conditions can it be realised and how does this impact the ideals of freedom (liberalism) and equality (socialism) of a modern democratic state? What remains then of the legitimacy of public solidarity? In how far are brotherhood and solidarity compatible with a liberal-individualistic interpretation of the rights of man? What is the impact of the divide between right of man and obligation of the state, of solidary contributor and solidary beneficiary, of the solidary nation-state and the institutions of the international community (UN)?

Guest Lecture: Prof. Rostane Mehdi (Aix-Marseille University, College of Europe): Les crises de l'Europe (29 May 2018)

At the invitation of dr. Raphaël Cahen. Talk hosted at the IES.

WRG Talk: dr. Magnus Ressel (Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main) (21 June 2018)

Topic: Trade embargoes and the right of neutrals in times of war in Early Modern Europe. The case of Switzerland between 1688-1714.

5th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History: Norms Accross Codes and Laws Decoded (Paris/ENS, 28-30 June 2018)

Papers by CORE members prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher, Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt, dr. Raphael Cahen, dra. Kaat Cappelle.

METAJURIDICA Reading Group - "Sur l'État", Pierre Bourdieu (1) (24 September 2018)

The first session of the reading group on "Sur l'État. Cours au Collège de France" will focus on Pierre Bourdieu's treatment of history, namely the vital transformation of what the sociologist terms "house thinking" to "raison d'État". Bourdieu's social construction of the conditions wherein the state can be thought, and wherein opposition to the legal orthodoxy of the state, thought by jurists, can become possible, is at the same time scrupulously respectful of established historical scholarship (ergo not very original, as the main narrative is already well known) and refreshing (with regards to new terms and concepts, that can possibly advance the state of our knowledge).
Bourdieu is a central figure in the humanities and social sciences. Using his concepts (habitus - field - symbolic violence - doxa - orthodoxy - gatekeepers - implicit normativity), sometimes deliberately undefined and vague, can build bridges to render historical material understandable to a lay audience of sociologists, lawyers, philosophers... For instance, the technical and painstaking nature of procedures, political deals or networks generally comes first in legal historical research, whereas the conclusions are apt to be understood by a broader scientific audience. This of course does not allow shedding traditional heuristics and primary source-analysis.
In view of the time that separates us from the early 1990s when Bourdieu presented his intuitions at the Collège de France, much complementary historical research has filled this gap. Bourdieu's intuitions will be confronted by work on normativity and the early modern state by Lucien Bély (diplomatic history), Martin Loughlin (public law) and Olivier Beaud (public law).

Readers are encouraged to address the whole book. Yet, in view of the repetitive nature of Bourdieu's explanations and the many digressions, the following excerpts are sufficient: - pp. 235-248 - pp. 249-264 - pp. 292-304

2018-2019

CORE Doctoral School October 2018 (1 October 2018)

Presentation by Kaat Cappelle on marriage contracts.

METAJURIDICA Reading Group - "Sur l'État", Pierre Bourdieu (2) (15 October 2018)

METAJURIDICA Reading Group - "Sur l'État", Pierre Bourdieu (3) (12 November 2018)

L&C Talk by Prof. dr. Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina (Zurich) (28 November 2018)

Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina will present her monography L'eterno ritorno del Droit des gens di Emer de Vattel (secc. XVIII-XIX). L'impatto sulla cultura giuridica in prospettiva globale, published as volume 8 of the Global Perspectives on Legal History Series by the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (Frankfurt am Main). Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina is Assistant Professor of Legal History at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich (Switzerland). Her interests concern the history of international law in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Transferring and Translating Concepts in Law and History 2nd Workshop of Average - Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries) (14 December 2018) (organisator: Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher)

Colloquium Joseph-Marie Portalis (1778-1858): diplomate, magistrat et législateur (13-14 December 2018, Cour de Cassation/Conseil d'État): co-organisation CORE/Université Clermont-Auvergne, Centre Michel de l'Hôpital/Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Institut Jean Gaudemet) (for CORE: dr. Raphaël Cahen).

See videos on vimeo.

MRG Talk: drs. Tim Christiaens (KUL/HIW) on Operaismo (Antonio Negri) (18 February 2019)

De stroming van het operaismo is wereldwijd doorgebroken met de publicatie van Negri en Hardts Empire, maar de geschiedenis van het Italiaans neo-marxisme dateert van veel vroeger. Aan de hand van de documentaire A Revolt that never Ends over het leven van Antonio Negri zal Tim Christiaens de voorgeschiedenis van het operaismo schetsen als een combinatie van filosofische invloeden (Della Volpe, Gramsci, Tronti) en politieke strategie (l'autunno caldo, il movimento '77). Tim Christiaens is doctoraal onderzoeker bij RIPPLE aan het Hoger Instituut voor Wijsbegeerte, KU Leuven. Zijn project gaat over neoliberale bestuurlijkheid bij Michel Foucault en Giorgio Agamben. Voor meer info, zie https://hiw.kuleuven.be/ripple/people/00104665.

Paul Ricoeur Reading Group: Le Juste (I) (25 February 2019) (chair Prof. dr. Paul De Hert)

Weekly Research Gathering: dr. Rémi Faivre-Faucompré (Paris II Panthéon-Assas) (4 March 2019)

Topic: "Le métaconcept de propriété".

CORE Doctoral School March 2019 (5 March 2019) 

Gijs Dreijer on average, bottomry and maritime insurance

Paul Ricoeur Reading Group: Le Juste (II) (11 March 2019)

Chair dr. Guido Gorgoni (Padova)

Inauguration of prof. Dr. Dave De ruysscher as member of the Young Academy (12 March 2019)

Academy Palace, Brussels

CORE Doctoral School March 2019 (II): Prof. Dr. Niels Van Dijk

Prof. dr. Niels Van Dijk presented on his published dissertation on legal practice, the fruit of an ethnography of intellectual property law. The book has been published by Elgar in 2017.

Joint PhD Day Ghent/USL/ULB/VUB (Ghent, 29 March 2019)

Presentation by Marco in 't Veld

L'année de la France à la VUB 2018-2019

Lectures by Prof. dr. Charles-Edouard Levillain (Université Paris VIII, Belgian Senate, 22 March 2019), Prof. dr. Lucien Bély (Sorbonne Université, Belgian Senate, 2 April 2019), Prof. dr. Jean-Louis Halpérin (Ecole Normale Supérieure/Royal Academy, 3 April 2019); co-organised by prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt (with the support of the VUB's rectorate and the Embassy of the French Republic in Belgium)

Journée d'études: les professeurs allemands en Belgique au XIXe siècle (ULB/VUB; ULB, 4 April 2019)

Co-organisation dr. Raphaël Cahen/Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt (with prof. dr. Jérôme de Brouwer and drs. Maxime Jottrand, ULB-CHDAJ) [as well as the support of L'Année de la France à la VUB]

Symposium deDebatten: Immanuel Kant (VUB/Leiden) (25 April 2019)

De Debatten is een initiatief van de Vrije Universiteit Brussel met de Universiteit Leiden en als Nederlandstalig forum een vaste waarde onder rechtsfilosofen en rechtshistorici uit de Lage Landen en een groeiende waarde binnen de wereld van de politieke filosofie. Na succesvolle formules omtrent Tocqueville (2011), Rousseau (2012), Benjamin Constant (2014), Montesquieu (2015), Burke (2016), de Federalist Papers (2017) en Hobbes (2018), met bijbehorende boeken, organiseert De Debatten een symposium over Kant. Het symposium vindt plaats te Brussel op donderdag 25 april 2019. See video here.

Acta published by Damon (eds. Andreas Kinneging, Paul De Hert, Maarten Colette), ISBN 9789463403122.

Debates on the constitutions of Russia and China (deBuren: April/May 2019)

Organisation Maarten Colette and Marco in 't Veld

International Days of the Society for Institutional and Legal History of Flanders, Picardy and Wallonia (31 May-1 June 2019, Oudenaarde): la vie et la mort

Papers by Pieter De Reu, Wouter De Rycke, Marco in 't Veld, Stanislas Horvat. 

See program here. Acta published in the C@hiers du CRHiDI 43 (2021).

XXVth Annual Forum of Young Legal Historians (5-8 June 2019, Academy Palace, de Markten, VUB) 

Co-organised by Wouter De Rycke, Marco in 't Veld and Stephanie Plasschaert, with ULB, USL, Committee for Legal History of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the Arts and Sciences, the Young Academy; funded by FWO, FNRS, the VUB's Hoover Fund, the Emeriti Fund of the Faculty of Law and Criminology. Keynote speakers Prof. dr. Lauren Benton (Yale), Prof. dr. Thomas Duve (Max Planck Institute for European legal History, Frankfurt) and dr. Simona Cerutti (EHESS). Opening by rector Caroline Pauwels (VUB).

CORE Doctoral School September 2019 (18 September 2019)

Presentation by Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt on "Western international law (1776-1870) and Neutrality"

CORE Doctoral School: Litigation in Late Medieval Bruges (30 September 2019)

Presentation by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher.

2019-2020

Symposium: The League of Nations and International Law during the Interbellum (25-26 October 2019, Academy Palace)

Co-organised by Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt (with KULeuven/Tilburg, Prof. dr. Randall Lesaffer, Prof. dr. Inge van Hulle; UGent, Prof. dr. Dirk Heirbaut, Chair of the Committee for Legal History of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the Arts and Sciences)

Workshop "Identity, Citizenship and Commerce" (7-8 November 2019), organised by Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher

This workshop delves into the theme of identity and citizenship with regard to trade. Legal historians have to date not paid much interest to how commerce had an impact on citizenship and identity. It remains unclear how the rich sets of rules that in the later Middle Ages, the Early Modern period and the nineteenth century were crafted to define citizenship, and political constellations as well, were affected by developments of commerce. Questions that will be answered are the following: Did governments have an immigration policy that was tailored to commercial interests? Did this translate into a broad legal support for residents, not being citizens? How were the interests of visitors valued as compared to those of citizens? Were merchants belonging to a separate legal category? If so, what defined this category? Was there a difference in legal effects of contracts involving citizens or foreigners? To what extent did different types of legal identity (merchant, citizen, member of nationes mercatorum) overlap or come into conflict? Was there an influence from “capitalist” virtues on the legal notions of citizen and resident?

Papers published in the collective volume Commerce, Citizenship, and Identity in Legal History (ISBN 9789004472860), edited by Serge Dauchy, Albrecht Cordes, Dave De ruysscher, Heikki Pihlajamäki & Stefania Gialdroni.

CORE Doctoral School: "The development of General Average in the Low Countries (14th-16th centuries): formal sources and competing influences" (25 november 2019)

Presentation by drs. Gijs Dreijer (Exeter/VUB) on "The development of General Average in the Low Countries (14th-16th centuries): formal sources and competing influences".

CORE Doctoral School on the historiography of international law (with Prof. dr. Dirk Heirbaut/UGent-KVAB) (13 December 2019)

Guest Lecture by dr. Pierre-Anne Forcadet (Université d'Orléans): Un droit international médiéval ? Pierre Dubois, la justice et la souveraineté (21 February 2020)

WeKonekt.Bxl: visit to the precious collections of the KBR (25 February 2020), linked to course Rechtsgeschiedenis/Legal History (Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt & dr. Raphaël Cahen)

CORE Update on Work-in-Progress (16 April 2020): by prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt

Guest lecture by dr. Zulal Muslu (MPIeR Frankfurt) (12 May 2020), organised by dr. Raphäel Cahen

"Revisiting the Legal Extraterritoriality and the Right of Intervention in the Eastern Question", Guest lecture in the course "Rechtsgeschiedenis" (Legal History, Master of Laws)

Joint seminar Universität Zürich-VUB (15 May 2020), organised by Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt and dr. Raphaël Cahen, with Prof. dr. Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina (Zürich) (Teams)

EUTopia Meeting CORE/Cergy-Pontoise (25 September 2020)

Organised by Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt and dr. Raphaël Cahen.

2020-2021

Online lecture Standen & Landen/Anciens Pays et Assemblées d'États: Prof. dr. Miroslav Šedivý (Univ. of Pardubice) (1 October 2020), at the invitation of Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt and Wouter De Rycke. 

The Europeans between the written law (Recht) and the law of the strongest (Faustrecht) The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a generally well-known attempt to ensure security and peace within the so-called family of European countries and nations. This goal was to be achieved by clearly defined legal engagements and a mutual willingness to settle international disputes in a peaceful way. A quarter century later, however, a considerable number of Europeans felt that the heritage of the congress was being eroded and that the world was becoming increasingly insecure. This conviction was primarily caused by the abuse of power by the most powerful states at the expense of weaker ones in Europe as well as the former’s imperialist policies in overseas regions. The most influential in this respect was the great powers’ competition in the Near East which had significant negative repercussions on the relations among the great powers themselves and on the general peace in Europe, such as happened in late 1840 during the so-called Rhine Crisis when a military conflict in the Ottoman Empire provoked a general war scare on the Continent. What was symptomatic for the Rhine Crisis was the increasing mistrust in the great powers’ policies and in the stability of the whole structure of the post-Napoleonic states system: a growing number of Europeans no longer had faith in the functionality of this system and generally became convinced that the security of their own countries and other nations in the world where the rule of force (Faustrecht) dominated was to be best preserved by material strength. That is why this widespread reaction to the law-breaking in international affairs, resulting in international insecurity, was one of the important points in various political/national programmes and stimulated the pursuit of national unifications, well defensible frontiers, land and naval armaments and colonial adventures.

At the same moment, however, a great number of Europeans did not abandon the belief that the security of their homeland also depended on the quality of the whole European states system, which made a considerable number advocate a more normative approach: new international law was to be introduced to ensure the equality as well as more justice and peace in relations among all states. This request was popular not only among the adherents of the peace movement being on rise in the 1840s but also in the nationalist camps across the Continent; both groups proposed the reconstruction of the international order by introducing new principles of international law, being a real law of (free) nations, and the creation of a pan-European organisation in the form of either a monarchical confederation or a congress of nations. The paper’s principal goal is to introduce this at the first sight contradictory debate about law and power in international relations before the mid 19th century and explain not only its causes but also the reason of the failure to establish a new better international political-legal order in Europe.

Watch the recording here.

CORE Meeting October (29 October 2020)

Online Symposium ESIL IGHIL "Politics and the Histories of International Law" (19 December 2020): co-organisation Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt

Program here.

CORE Talk: Dave De Ruysscher, "The Legal Category of Merchant: Unity or Divergence? (Later Middle Ages-Early Modern Period" (28 January 2021)

CORE Talk: Wouter De Rycke (15 February 2021)

CORE Talk: Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarin (Graduate Institute) (1 March 2021, Teams)

Presentation by Daniel Quiroga Villamarin on its research project: "Architects of the Better World: The Birth of the International Conference Complex (1918-1998)" and discussion.

Colloque: krausisme juridique et politique en Europe (11-12 March 2021, Dijon): co-organisation dr. Raphaël Cahen.

See program here. Acta (ed. Oscar Ferreira) published by the Classiques Garnier.

CORE Talk: Wanshu Cong and Johannes Thumfart (19 April 2021)

Presentation by Wanshu Cong and Johannes Thumfart on the Chinese origins of digital modes of sovereignty (1996 to 2001) - Between authoritarian censorship and resistance against digital colonialism.

Book Launch Conquering Peace from the Enlightenment to the European Union by Stella Ghervas (Newcastle University) (1 June 2021)

Online event, see poster. Respondents: prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt - prof. dr. Randall Lesaffer (KULeuven/Tilburg). Moderator: dr. Raphaël Cahen.

Colloquium Law(s) and International relations: actors, institutions and comparative legislations (15-17 September, Orléans): organised by dr. Raphaël Cahen

See program here. Acta published by Pedone (ISBN 9782233010674), contributions by Raphaël Cahen, Wouter De Rycke, Florenz Volkaert, Frederik Dhondt.

Guest lecture by Augustin Parise "Dissecting Codes: A Methodological Approach to the Sources of the 1871 Argentine Civil Code (18 October 2021), at the invitation of prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher.

Dr A. Parise is legal historian and he has developed a method to analyse source references in preparatory legislative documents. This lecture is the first of Methods` Market, a cycle of presentations on innovative methodologies in the Legal and Criminological Sciences. Nineteenth-century codification endeavours confirm that legal ideas circulate. They offer enriching examples of circulation between jurisdictions, even across continents and time periods. The presentation will offer methodological insights on the use of sources by the drafter of the 1871 Argentine Civil Code. It aims to highlight that sources came from both sides of the Atlantic and from different time periods. The presentation will be divided into three parts. Firstly, the presentation will briefly devote attention to the 1871 Argentine Civil Code and to the content of the library of the Argentine codifier. This will help contextualize the use of sources and to visualize the arsenal of sources that the codifier had at hand. Secondly, the presentation will address the sources of the code and its notes. Thus, the scaffolding of that body of law will be exposed. Thirdly, the presentation will explain a method that allows to classify the references to sources that the Argentine codifier made in his notes. This final part will therefore offer a methodological tool to discover the transatlantic dimension of the corpus of sources of the 1871 Argentine Civil Code. The presentation aims to alert that legislators must respond to social needs and can draw on pre-existing pieces of legislation and legal ideas, available across time and space.

Book presentation: The Diplomatic Enlightenment by Edward Jones Corredera (co-organisation VUB CORE – UNED Madrid) (14 December 2021)

Belgian-Dutch Legal History Colloquium (16-17 December 2021, Rotterdam) (online)

Presentations by Wouter De Rycke and Filip Batselé

2021-2022

Zoom Round table: The Historical Turn in International Economic Law (CORE/GRILI-UGent; ESIL Interest Groups History of International Law/International Economic Law) (12 October 2021)

Convenors: Drs. Filip Batselé (Ghent University – Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ghent Legal History Institute – Centre de droit international, VUB/CORE)
Dr. Gustavo Prieto (Ghent University, Human Rights Center - Human Rights in Context)
Drs. Florenz Volkaert (Ghent University, Ghent Legal History Institute, VUB/CORE)

WRG Talk: Territory and Jurisdiction, 1660-1776 (30 November 2021)

Talk by prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt

Joint seminar LSTS/CORE on the proportionality principle (26 January 2022)

Activities from March 2022 on are displayed on the left-hand side of this blog.