VUB Contextual Research in Law

(Source: ihpan.edu.pl ) Abstract: This presentation introduces a  book   project  led by Piotr  Kuligowski , aiming to elucidate how the intertwined concepts of sovereignty and representation were utilized and debated by representative assemblies in European interfaces during the turbulent period of social revolutions and national upheavals. Focusing on the cases of Belgian and Polish representative bodies from the Congress of Vienna to the Spring of Nations, the  project  explores how these concepts were adapted to post-Vienna and post-1830 arrangements. In both contexts, their political geography—being situated in-between empires and exposed to their influences and interventions—resonates in the perception of sovereignty and representation. Additionally, the accumulated historical experiences of political fragmentation and uncertainty about the future intersected with the aspirations of emerging liberal elites and their perceptions of statehood and polit...

The geopolitical background of the debates on international law in the mid-19th century Introduction In the 1840s, Europeans often expressed a deep mistrust of the international order that had been created in Europe after the Napoleonic Wars. This feeling resulted from the assertive and often illegal policies of the great powers which made a considerable number of people believe that the world was dominated by the strength of material power instead of written law. With this conviction, the questions of security, justice and international law became more and more debated in Europe. Some contemporaries desired to change the post- Napoleonic order by replacing it with a new one based on the principle of nationhood ensuring greater justice and a more stable peace among free European nations. During the same decade a similar debate on the political-legal coexistence with European countries spread in the United States. The goal of the paper is to reveal this important, but in historical and ...

  (image source: William Rappard Centre/ WTO ) Daniel Quiroga-Villamarin, currently  visiting  our research group from Geneva, will hold an L&C Talk on  Friday 10 June.  This talk will be hybrid (on campus -  Vergaderzaal PE (3C204)   and online, on Teams). Abstract: While the intellectual trajectories of international law's "move to Institutions" in the early twentieth century has been often explored in the literature, most accounts divorce their analysis from the seemingly banal histories of "buildings, staffs, and letterheads." Conversely, in this article, I place the spatiality of the Centre William Rappard at the forefront of the history of 20th century internationalisms. Erected to serve the International Labor Organization (in 1926), this building was, among other things, repurposed to host the World Trade Organization (in 1975). In this piece, I reconstruct how struggles over claims of universality can be explored through disputes related t...