VUB Contextual Research in Law

  Prof. Dr.  Dave De ruysscher  has been awarded the Jean Stengers Prize of the Académie Royale de Belgique for the triennial period 2023–2025.  He received this distinction in recognition of his study A Political Economy Imparted: Trade, Law, and Institutions in Antwerp c. 1400–1680 , a work that sheds new light on the interplay between legal frameworks and economic development in the early modern Low Countries.  Our warmest congratulations to the laureate!

  (image source: MPILHLT ) Prof.  Dave De ruysscher  presents tomorrow at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt am Main. Abstract: For a long time, the history of commercial law in the later Middle Ages and early modern period was categorized in terms of a spontaneous emergence of norms (consuetudo mercatorum, lex mercatoria). Over the past decades, the influence of jurists and urban administrators has been emphasized more. However, what is lacking is an explanatory framework that captures the coming into being of rules relating to mercantile contracts and situations, as well as their canonization. The dichotomies of local versus transnational, customary versus official, mercantile versus juristic and merchant versus state fall short when the focus is on these problems. Challenges that impede with this exercise have to do with the relationship between law and the economy and the contribution of different social groups to the ...

Prof. Dave De ruysscher advertises two vacancies for PhD candidates on FWO Senior Fundamental Research Projects.  1. Cities as breeding grounds: legal change in financial law (ca. 1620-ca. 1750) More information here . 2. Collective negotiations in sovereign default and corporate insolvency (1890-1920) More information here .

  (image source: PHEDRA ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher and Prof. Frederik Dhondt will present at the Phedra Encounters organised at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. More information here .

  (image source: Amsterdam University Press ) Abstract: This article explores the dynamics of court practice with regard to mercantile pre-insolvency in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Belgium. In 1883, the Belgian legislature introduced the proceeding of concordat préventif, making it possible for insolvent entrepreneurs to remain outside the liquidation-oriented procedure of faillite. Instead, they could declare their financial problems and propose a scheme of payment to their creditors. In spite of this goal, however, the 1883 law, along with subsequent laws of 1885 and 1887, imposed high majority voting requirements. Accordingly, in the Antwerp commercial court, the shortcomings of the legislation were amended to ameliorate its procedural and judicial practice. The new practices of the court resulted in higher rates of acceptance of applications. However, these success ratios were not evenly distributed among the groups of debtors who applied. Perceptions shared by...

  (Source:  cambridge.org ) Abstract This article explores the dynamics of court practice with regard to mercantile preinsolvency in later nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Belgium. In 1883, the Belgian legislature introduced the proceeding of concordat préventif, making it possible for insolvent entrepreneurs to remain outside the liquidation-oriented procedure of faillite. Instead, they could declare their financial problems and propose a scheme of payment to their creditors. Despite this goal, however, the 1883 law, along with subsequent laws of 1885 and 1887, imposed high majority voting requirements. Accordingly, in the Antwerp commercial court, the shortcomings of the legislation were amended to ameliorate its procedural and judicial practice. The new practices of the court resulted in higher rates of acceptance of applications. However, these success ratios were not evenly distributed among the groups of debtors who applied. Perceptions shared by both creditors an...

(image source: dagvandewetenschap )   The Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) published the outcome of its 2024 call for Senior Fundamental Research Projects. Prof. Dave De ruysscher obtained two four year research grants (2025-2028): Collective Bargaining in State Bankruptcies and Corporate Insolvencies (1890–1920) (G0A3025N) (co-supervisor: Prof. Frederik Dhondt ) Cities as Breeding Grounds: Legal Change in Financial Law (c. 1620–c. 1750) (G0ACT25N) (co-supervisors: Prof. Luisa Brunori /ENS Paris and Prof. Stefania Gialdroni (Padova))

  (image: Oude Beursplein, Brugge; source: Wikimedia Commons ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher published a Bibliography History of International Economic and Commercial Law  on Academia.edu in open access. Introduction: This bibliography, as it stands now, contains monographs, chapters and articles (not primary sources), written in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch, that were published from 1870. The geographical scope is limited to Europe and the Americas. As concerns Europe, no references regarding Antiquity are included (except for the Roman law on partnership and insolvency). Attention is paid to Nordic, Arab and Jewish influences. Some source editions of treaties are mentioned. In the future, this bibliography will be expanded to include source editions and doctrinal texts, of both before and after 1900. Read more here . 

  (image source: PHEDRA ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher is a member of the panel of the PHEDRA Summer School organised in Spain this Summer. Call: The International Research Network I.R.N. PHEDRA organizes its second summer school in La Rábida (Palos de la Frontera, Spain) on 25-28 June 2024. Following the basis of the first summer school, the purpose of the event is to provide an exceptional opportunity to the participants to present their ongoing research before a group of specialists in commercial legal history matters, in order to generate fruitful discussions resulting in valuable feedback that will enrich and improve their work. PHEDRA project concerns the  history of business law, from Antiquity to the present day, focusing on norms and practices that developed around Europe  to support commerce and business exchange which led to the transformation of societies and gave commercial law its features. The project is particularly interested on the sources we use to trace an...

(image source: LGDJ ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher contributed a chapter to the edited volume Dynamique juridique des réseaux marchands. Hanses, nations, agences, filiales et comptoirs. Consult the table of contents here .

(image source: ZNR ) Abstract: The historiography on commercial law in Europe for the later Middle Ages and early modern period has greatly changed over the course of two centuries. A decisive moment was the recalibration of commercial law to a law of merchants, at the end of the nineteenth century. The category of merchant became dominant. This resulted in a perspective that mercantile law existed outside the framework of the state and beyond the reach of jurists. Looking at the coming into being of these views allows to see paths for scholarship on the theme in the future. Read the article here: DOI 10.5771/0250-6459-2023-1

(image source: KVAB ) Alumnus dr. Niels Fieremans (Joint PhD History (UGent), supervisors Prof. dr. Jan Dumolyn and Prof. dr. Dirk Heirbaut - Law (VUB), supervisor Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher) wins the Erik Duverger Prize  of the Royal Flemish Academy for his dissertation  Law, leverage and litigation. The legal strategies of foreign merchants before the courts of late medieval Bruges, defended last June. Niels is currently postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University.  Our most sincere congratulations to the laureate ! The prize will be awarded on 9 December. More information on the KVAB website .

  (Source: UGent ) Drs. Florenz Volkaert, PhD-researcher at UGent and voluntary associate at CORE,  will publicly defend his PhD-dissertation  “Commercial treaties (1860-1914): a networked history of international law and trade” on  Friday 3  November  2023  at  17:30 .  About the dissertation:    The doctoral thesis examines commercial treaties in international law from 1860 to 1914, using methodological tools from network science. First, it finds that economic historians have overestimated the importance of the Cobden-Chevalier network of commercial treaties (1860-1871) due to a misunderstanding of the substantive legal clauses and a Eurocentric reading of the treaties. Second, it provides a critical overview of the development of international legal doctrine (1886-1914). The doctoral thesis illustrates how international lawyers legitimised colonialism and imperialism in the construction of legal doctrine, American exceptionalism,...

(image source: Ostend Company Conference website ) In 1722-1723, Emperor Charles VI, Count of Flanders and Duke of Brabant, granted the charter of the Imperial East India Company in Ostend. The company's shares were traded on the Antwerp Stock Exchange. Its ships went to China and India. International pressure brought the Emperor to suspend (1727) and retract (1731) the charter, although clandestine activity continued until a lot later in the eighteenth century. The Belgian Royal Marine Society and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) organise an international conference in Ostend, 23-24 November 2023. Program: Thursday 23 November 2023 9:15      Welcome : Jan Mees (VLIZ) & Eduard Somers (Royal Belgian Marine Society) Carl Decaluwé (Governor of the Province of West-Flanders) Torsten Feys (VLIZ), Frederik Dhondt (VUB), Michael-W. Serruys (Royal Belgian Marine Society) & Stan Pannier (VLIZ) 10:00    Key Note 1 :  Small companies in a gl...

  (image source: EUTopia website ) EUTopia, the European University uniting the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and nine other partners, offers a partnering tool  for postdoc fellowships under the European Commission's MSCA actions. Prospective candidates can construct an application with a supervisor from another EUTopia-institution, or with one in our group .  CORE has welcomed dr. Raphaël Cahen (2017-2019) as MSCA incoming Pegasus² fellow (co-fund programme with the FWO), as well as dr. Stefano Cattelan (2022-2023) as incoming Carlsberg Foundation Internationalisation Grantee. Besides the applications for FWO Junior and Senior Postdoctoral Fellows, the MSCA Fellowships are an important channel to attract PhD graduates for fundamental research purposes. Eligibility: Supported fellows must be postdoctoral researchers at the date of the call deadline, i.e. in a possession of a doctoral degree before 13 September 2023, defined as a successfully defended doctoral thesis, even ...

  Our member drs. Niels Fieremans (researcher, FWO Fundamental Research Project) will defend his Joint PhD  in history and law with prof. dr. Jan Dumolyn (UGent), Prof. dr. Dirk Heirbaut (UGent/KVAB) and Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher (VUB) as supervisors on Wednesday 28 June  at 16:00  in the Aula Academica in Ghent. More information on the image above (click enlarge).

(image source: Brill ) Dr. dr. Gijs Dreijer, who defended his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in June 2021 (supervisor: Prof. Dave De ruysscher ), has just published his monograph. Warmest congratulations! This dissertation was written in the framework of a Joint PhD (Law - History) with the University of Exeter (supervisor: Prof. Maria Fusaro), funded through the ERC Consolidator Grant "Average - Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)".  Abstract: As the fall-out of the Ever Given Suez canal blockage shows, an ancient instrument like General Average (GA) is still highly relevant in redistributing risks and costs in maritime trade. However, bar marine insurance, not much is known about the development of tools of maritime risk management like GA, which redistributes extraordinary costs incurred for the common safety of maritime ventures. This book investigates the development of General Average and other so...