VUB Contextual Research in Law

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...

(image source: Museu Nacional ) The EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History will hold its annual peak event in Barcelona, where Prof. Alfons Aragoneses (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) welcomes student delegations from CY Cergy Paris Université (Prof. Caroula Argyriadis-Kervégan), Univerza v Ljubljani (Prof. Katja Škrubej) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Prof. Frederik Dhondt). A draft program has now been made available: Connected Learning Community – Legal History Peak event: February 27-28 2026 The End(s) of War Universitat Pompeu Fabra FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 9:00-09:30 Reception of participants 09:30-09:45 Welcome addresses 09:45-11:00 The Wars before 1914. Chair: Prof: Alfons Aragoneses. Pacifications during the Eighty Years War , Emma Wittens (VUB). The Ljubljana Congress (1821) in the aftermath of Napoleonic wars: between the legacy and memory in select Slovenian late 19th and 20th century sources , Nives Košnjek (UL). From Neutral Constraint to Sovere...

  (image source: Housmans ) Prof. Laurent De Sutter will present the recent English translation of his book Superfaible  ( Superweak ) in London on 17 March 2026 .  Description: Using the stealth capacities of hermeneutic distrust as his weapon of choice, de Sutter’s writing breaks into unrecovered areas of subtle teachings, shedding light on philosophemes gleaned from Aristotle to punk-led attitude, biojewelry, and the historical buildup of authority billed to the triumph of reason in its many intrusive morphs. — Avital Ronell, New York University We welcome back the brilliant Alfie Bown to Housmans, this time in the company of Belgian philosopher Laurent de Sutter. The two will be focusing their conversation on the nature and necessity (or, rather, superfluity [as posited by Laurent]) of critique. As a jumping off point they will be using Laurent’s recent work of theory, Superweak: Thinking in the 21st Century. The book is described below: ‘We have become superheroes. ...

VUB and ULB have obtained an MSCA postdoctoral programme  cofunded under Horizon Europe. 24 international postdocs will be hired at the ULB, 12 at the VUB. Description: The programme period will take place between 2025 and 2030 and will open two calls, each offering 18 positions open to all fields of research, according to a bottom-up approach. During the fellowship, IRIS postdocs will benefit from an environment that fosters academic growth and well-being. Fellows will engage in optional secondments and short visits, take part in the IRIS management committee, and have 30 months to fully carry out their interdisciplinary research projects. IRIS’s research programme hinges on two themes: interdisciplinarity and the six societal challenges of the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) . IRIS fellows' research projects will exemplify solutions in the applied context of the BCR but are intrinsically linked to ubiquitous European needs, thereby preparing the participating researchers European-...

(image source: above and beyond construction history ) The EOS-project, wherein Prof. Dave De ruysscher and drs. Louis Debersaques take part, has its own website. More information here .

  (image source: Giappichelli ) Dr. Stefano Cattelan contributed to the fifth volume of the series History & Law Encounters. Lezioni per pensare da giurista. Tomo V  (eds. Elisabetta Fusar Poli & Federica Paletti), published by Giappichelli. Read more here .

(image source: UGent ) Prof. Frederik Dhondt contributed an article on rights and freedoms in the Weimar Constitution to the Tijdschrift voor Mensenrechten . Read the article here in open access: DOI 10.21825/tvmr.96283 .

(source: Youtube ) Dr. Stefano Cattelan and Prof. Frederik Dhondt were interviewed by Prof. Pascal Lottaz (Kyoto) for his Neutrality Studies  channel on Youtube, at the occasion of the publication of their collective volume Small Power Neutrality and the Law of the Sea in the Long Eighteenth Century  ( Brill, 2025 ).

Les journées de la Société d’histoire du droit et des institutions des pays flamands, picards et wallons se tiendront cette année à Versailles les 15 et 16 mai 2026, à l’invitation de Madame Catherine Lecomte, professeur émérite à l’université de Versailles-Saint Quentin et présidente honoraire de la société, sur le thème « Dirigeants et dirigés ». Si la notion de gouvernance a été, ces dernières années, souvent questionnée dans ses structures, ses moyens et ses fins, celle de gouvernant et plus largement de dirigeant mérite à nouveau une particulière attention. L’actualité contemporaine montre en effet qu’en matière de gouvernance publique, les structures institutionnelles ne suffisent pas à déterminer à elles seules les politiques qui demeurent influencées par la personnalité des dirigeants. Renouant avec une problématique classique de l’Histoire des idées politiques, un tel sujet propose une réflexion sur les gouvernements à travers la personne de ses dirigeants, s...

  (image source: openaire ) Prof. Frederik Dhondt published the dataset "Goswin Arnould de Wynants' Mémoires contenant des notions générales de tout ce qui concerne le Gouvernement des Païs Bas (Vienna, 1730)" on Zenodo. Description: Transcription (generated with Transkribus, manually corrected and tagged) of an undated copy of Goswin Arnould de Wynants' Mémoires contenant des notions générales de tout ce qui concerne le Gouvernement des Païs Bas, initially written in Vienna in 1730 (239 images). Wynants was a member (since 1717) of the High Council for the Austrian Netherlands, an advisory organ to Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740). Trained as a lawyer in Leuven, he had been an attorney and councillor (judge) at the Council of Brabant before. Wynants describes the institutional and constitutional, but also commercial and judicial organisation of the provinces of the Spanish (from 1713 on, Austrian) Netherlands, from the late Middle Ages on. The work is written in an in...

  (image source: Fundación Ortega-Marañon ) Prof. Laurent De Sutter published an article in Revista de Occidente . More information here .