CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference: Contested Seas. War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the Sea (c. 1400–1800) (Ostend: VUB/VLIZ, 19-20 NOV 2026) [DEADLINE 15 MAY 2026]
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 overlapping jurisdictions, uneven enforcement, and profound asymmetries
of power (Benton, 2010). The freedom of the seas (‘Mare Liberum’)
did not operate as a stable peacetime principle. It was repeatedly
restricted, negotiated, and redefined in moments of conflict, particularly
through disputes concerning maritime jurisdiction, economic warfare, neutral
navigation, and prize-taking.
Hence, several methodological questions arise. Can we chart the
deeper structures and long-term evolutions of the law of the sea and, at the
same time, remain historically grounded and relevant to contemporary debates?
Recent scholarship has challenged the idea that the law of the sea
gradually restrained violence at sea. Instead, norms were forged,
tested, and transformed through concrete conflicts over sovereignty,
jurisdiction, and neutral navigation (e.g. Steinberg, 2001; Benton, 2010; Schnakenbourg,
2015; Calafat, 2019; Cattelan, 2025). This perspective invites a rethinking of
the law of the sea not as a dependent variable of early modern conflict, but as
one of its crucial products. The present conference builds on this
emerging insight and seeks to explore its broader implications across different
regions, actors, and legal contexts.
This conference invites contributions that approach the law of the
sea as a historically produced normative regime, examined as (1) a body of
legal argument, a set of institutional (2) practices, and a (3) field
of political struggle. It seeks to foster dialogue across legal
history, international law and the histories of ideas, diplomacy, warfare, and
empire, bringing together scholars attentive to different sources, actors
and objects (doctrine, archives, institutions, legal reasoning,
institutional practice, and material interests). The conference situates the
law of the sea within broader processes of state formation, imperial
competition, and global connectivity, including its interaction with commercial
and maritime legal practices (Félicité, 2024).
This conference takes a broad analytical perspective, to
seal a series of three encounters organised under the aegis of FWO Junior
Fundamental Research Project G016122N. While earlier meetings in this series
focused primarily on neutrality as a legal status, diplomatic strategy, and
social practice —particularly from the perspective of small and medium powers— the
present symposium shifts the analytical focus: recurrent conflicts over
neutrality, belligerent rights, maritime jurisdiction, and enforcement
mechanisms did not merely test existing norms. These instances were crucial to
the historical formation of the law of the sea as a contested legal regime. In
this sense, neutrality is approached as a formative force in the making
of the law of the sea across judicial, diplomatic, and commercial arenas.
The conference aims to offer a synthetic reinterpretation
of the relationship between mare liberum and mare clausum, peace
and war, neutrality and coercion, situating the early modern law of the sea
within the longer history of international law without assuming linear
trajectories or teleological outcomes. It also invites reflection on the enduring
legacies of early modern maritime practices for later codification efforts
and contemporary debates on ocean governance in an increasingly polycentric
world (Mawani, 2023; Ranganathan, 2016, 2020).
Finally, the conference welcomes contributions addressing different
maritime regions and circuits, including —but not limited to— the
Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean worlds, as well as interactions
between different legal orders and actors (Anand, 1983; Khalilieh, 2019;
Subrahmanyam, 2024; Po, 2018). We particularly welcome contributions on cross-cultural
legal encounters and concrete sites of norm production, such as
courts, diplomatic practices, commercial litigation, port regulations, and
contractual arrangements.
Key Questions
The conference invites contributions addressing one or more of the
following questions:
- What
kind of legal regime was the early modern law of the sea?
How can it be understood as a historically contingent and contested normative order rather than a coherent or stabilised body of rules? - How
did warfare shape the law of the sea?
In what ways did recurring conflicts over maritime jurisdiction, belligerent rights, neutrality, blockade, contraband, and prize-taking contribute to the production and transformation of legal norms at sea? - How
was the law of the sea articulated, applied, and contested in daily
practice?
What roles did courts, diplomatic channels, port authorities, consular institutions, and commercial actors play in the everyday functioning of this legal regime? - How
did neutrality operate as a formative force within the law of the sea?
How were legal boundaries between peace and war at sea shaped by disputes and agreements involving neutral navigation? - How did
individuals and non-state actors exercise legal agency at sea?
The mobilisation of multiple normative orders —public, commercial, and customary by merchants, shipmasters, insurers, chartered companies, or private entrepreneurs — to pursue commercial, political, or strategic objectives is central here. - How
did different connected spaces and regions shape a distinct legal practice?
How did practices take shape across and between different maritime regions and circuits, including interactions between European and extra-European legal orders? - What
are the longer-term implications of early modern practices of the law of
the sea?
How did early modern solutions and conflicts inform later codification efforts and continue to resonate in contemporary debates on ocean governance?
Thematic
Areas (Indicative)
The following thematic areas, which constitute the thematic
translation of the questions highlighted above, articulate different
dimensions of the early modern law of the sea as a contested legal regime
produced through conflict, commerce, and legal practice. They are intended to
be read as analytically connected rather than as parallel or autonomous
agendas. They are indicative rather than exhaustive.
1. The sea as a legal and spatial order
Maritime
jurisdiction; territorial waters; ports, straits, and littoral zones;
sovereignty and access; legal pluralism at sea; competing claims to control,
passage, and enforcement.
2. War, commerce, and neutrality in the law of the sea
Naval warfare
and economic conflict; blockade, contraband, and continuous voyage;
prize-taking and adjudication; neutrality as legal status, diplomatic strategy,
and practical resource; coercion, enforcement, and asymmetries between
belligerents and neutrals.
3. Institutions and practices producing the law of the sea
Courts
(including admiralty and prize courts); diplomatic correspondence; consular
jurisdictions; port authorities and regulatory regimes; chartered companies;
litigation, arbitration, and everyday legal practice. Contributions grounded in
specific sources or sites of norm production are particularly welcome.
4. Agency and normative pluralism within the law of the sea
The role of
individuals and non-state actors —such as merchants, shipmasters, insurers,
private entrepreneurs, and colonial intermediaries— in mobilising a plurality
of normative orders, including the law of nations, domestic legislation,
commercial and maritime law, urban statutes, customary norms, and private
contracts.
5. The law of the sea across regions, empires, and legal
encounters
Comparative
and transregional perspectives; interactions between European and
extra-European legal orders; cross-cultural legal encounters; circulation,
translation, and contestation of norms governing maritime space in different
oceanic worlds.
6. From early modern practice to modern/contemporary ocean
governance
Long-term
continuities and ruptures in the law of the sea; armed neutrality and
collective enforcement; early modern legacies in later codification efforts and
contemporary debates on ocean governance.
Disciplinary
Scope: The conference welcomes contributions from legal history, the
history of international law, maritime and naval history, diplomatic and
political history, economic history, and international law scholarship with a
historical or theoretical orientation. Interdisciplinary, critical, and
transregional approaches are particularly encouraged. Early-career researchers
are warmly invited to submit proposals.
Format: The conference
is conceived as a focused, discussion-oriented event. Draft papers will be
circulated in advance to facilitate in-depth exchange. Presentations will be
kept at 20 minutes for each speaker in order to prioritise collective
discussion and comparative discussion.
Submission Guidelines: please submit
an abstract of no more than 350 words and a short biographical note of up to 150
words to: stefano.cattelan@vub.be.
Submission deadline: 15 May 2026
Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2026
Draft papers (for pre-circulation among participants): 20 October 2026
Publication: Following the conference, selected contributions will be
submitted to a special issue in an international peer-reviewed journal
(preferably open access).
Practical
Information: The organisers aim to secure funding to cover organisational costs
and, where possible, to offer limited support for travel and accommodation,
particularly for early-career researchers and scholars without access to
dedicated research funds. Further practical information will be communicated to
accepted participants.
Indicative references:
Alimento, Antonella (ed.), War,
Trade and Neutrality: Europe and the Mediterranean in the Seventeenth and
Eighteen Centuries (Milano, 2011).
Id., and Stapelbroek, Koen (eds.), The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century
(Cham, 2017).
Anand, Ram P., Origin and Development of the Law of the
Sea. History of International Law Revisited (The Hague/Boston/London,
1983).
Benton, Lauren and Perl-Rosenthal, Nathan (eds.), A World at
Sea: Maritime Practices and Global History (Philadelphia, 2020).
Benton, Lauren, A Search for Sovereignty. Law and Geography in
European Empires, 1400-1900 (Cambridge, 2010).
Calafat, Guillaume, Une mer
jalousée: contribution à l’histoire de la souveraineté (Méditerranée, XVIIe
siècle) (Paris, 2019).
Cattelan, Stefano and Frederik
Dhondt (eds.), Small Power Neutrality and the Law of the Sea in the Long
Eighteenth Century (1650–1800). Law as
Argument in the Pelagic Arena (Leiden/Boston, 2025).
Cattelan, Stefano and Louis Sicking. ‘The Coastal Seas in
International Law: Contextualising Grotius’s De iure belli ac pacis’, Grotiana,
46(1) (2025), 43-65.
Cattelan, Stefano, Mare Clausum: The Formation of the Law of
the Sea in Pre-modern State Practice and Legal Doctrine (c. 1350–1650)
(Leiden/Boston, 2025).
Dhondt, Frederik, ‘“Arrestez et pillez contre toute sorte de
droit”: Trade and the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720)’, Legatio: The Journal for Renaissance and
Early Modern Diplomatic Studies,
1 (2017), 98-130.
Id., ‘Delenda est haec
Carthago. The Ostend Company as a Problem of European Great Power Politics
(1722-1727)’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis/Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire,
93 (2015), 397-437.
Félicité, Indravati, Le Saint-Empire face au monde.
Contestations et redéfinitions de l’impérialité (XVe-XIXe
siècle) (Paris, 2024).
Ford, John D., The Emergence
of Privateering (Leiden/Boston, 2023).
Harding, Richard, Seapower
and Naval Warfare, 1650–1830 (London, 2002).
Khalilieh, Hassan S., Islamic Law of the Sea: Freedom of
Navigation and Passage Rights in Islamic Thought (Cambridge, 2019).
Mancke, Elizabeth, ‘Early Modern Expansion and the Politicization of Oceanic Space’, Geographical Review, 89(2), 225-36.
Mawani, Renisa, ‘The law of the
sea’, in Peter D. Burdon and James Martel (eds.), The Routledge
Handbook of Law and the Anthropocene (London, 2023), 115-29.
Müller, Leos, Neutrality in
World History (New York, 2019).
Neff, Stephen C., The Rights
and Duties of Neutrals: A General History (Manchester, 2000).
Po, Ronald C, The Blue Frontier: Maritime Vision and Power
in the Qing Empire (Cambridge, 2018).
Ranganathan, Surabhi, ‘Decolonization and International Law:
Putting the Ocean on the Map’, Journal of the History of International Law,
23(1) (2020), 161-83.
Id., ‘Global Commons’, European Journal of International Law,
27(3) (2016), 693-717.
Schnakenbourg, Éric, Entre
la guerre et la paix: Neutralité et relations internationales, XVIIe–XVIIIe
Siècles (Rennes, 2013).
Sicking, Louis, ‘The Pirate and the Admiral: Europeanisation and
Globalisation of Maritime Conflict Management’, Journal of the History of
International Law, 20(4) (2018), 429-70.
Stapelbroek, Koen (ed.), Trade and War: The Neutrality of Commerce in
the Inter-State System (Helsinki, 2011).
Steinberg, Philip E., The Social Construction of the Ocean (Cambridge, 2001).
Strootman, Rolf, van den Eijnde, Floris, and van Wijk, Roy (eds.),
Empires of the Sea. Maritime Power Networks in World History (Leiden,
2019).
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, Across the Green Sea: Histories from the
Western Indian Ocean, 1440–1640 (Austin, 2024).
Wani, Kentaro, Neutrality in International Law. From the Sixteenth Century to 1945 (London/New York, 2017).
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