VUB Contextual Research in Law

(image source: Routledge) Prof. Dave De ruysscher contributed a chapter on the history of the international law of responsible business to The Routledge Companion to International Law and Responsible Business , edited by Bart F. Wernaart and published by Routledge.  Read more here .

  (image: Passau; Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Prof. Frederik Dhondt and dr. Stefano Cattelan will present the ERC Consolidator Grant TREATYLAB at the Transkribus User Conference 2026 in Passau (Germany). More information on the conference website .

(image source: UNED ) dr. Stefano Cattelan and Prof. Frederik Dhondt will present papers at the symposium Esta admirable antorcha. La Monarquía de España y la nueva forma de pensar el derecho público europeo a mediados del siglo XVIII , organised by Prof. Núria Sallés Vilaseca (UNED Madrid), part of the project De la hegemonía al equilibrio: La reubicación de la Monarquía de España en el orden de Utrecht  (PID2024-1621619NA-100 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades). Program: Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). “Continuity and change: legal argumentation in the Public Law of Europe (1700-1771).” Pelayo Fernández García (Universidad de Oviedo). “Tener presentes los sucesos de la Historia: la proyectada colección de tratados de Santa Cruz de Marcenado. Francisco Eissa-Barroso (Universidad de Manchester). “Los orígenes de la Colección de los tratados de paz de España (1740- 1752) atribuida a Joseph Antonio de Abreu y Bertodano: marco intelectual, contexto soci...

(image source: MPILHLT ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher published an article on "The Bill of Exchange and the Dynamics of Legal Interpretation (15th–18th Centuries)" Abstract: This article analyses the developments of the law of bills of exchange in the later Middle Ages and early modern period from the vantage point of »legal dynamics«. From the 14th century onwards, the bill of exchange developed in interactions between international mercantile practice, legislative approaches and juristic interpretation. Close attention to mercantile documents and sources of practice allows us to nuance a largely »monolithic« image of the emergence of bills of exchange and their corresponding norms. For a long time, financial instruments have been presented as mere functional creations, derived from mercantile practice. This presentation went together with an assumption of continuity. With regard to bills of exchange, this resulted in the identification of the late medieval varieties with the st...

Jemmy Suwannaluck joins CORE as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher and Prof. dr. Frederik Dhondt . His research focuses on the legal history of sovereign debt and default, with particular attention to the development of collective negotiations and the legal mechanisms through which sovereign debt has been addressed historically and in international economic law.  Jemmy presents himself as follows:  I approach law across disciplinary and geographical boundaries, with research interests ranging from international law to legal history. I am particularly interested in how legal norms and institutions evolve through encounters between different actors, jurisdictions and economic interests, and in the broader social and cultural contexts in which these interactions unfold. My doctoral research brings this approach to the legal history of sovereign debt and default, exploring the development of collective negotiations. Through historical analysis, I ...

(image source: ESIL )   dr. Stefano Cattelan will present at the European Society of International Law/Société européenne de droit international 's Annual Conference, namely at the pre-conference event " Conflict, Crisis, Continuity - Historical Perspectives " at the Universidad de Malaga on 3 September 2026, organised by the Interest Group History of International Law. More information on the ESIL IGHIL's website .

(image source:  TREATYLAB )  Three full-time PhD vacancies for the ERC Consolidator Grant TREATYLAB ("The Labyrinth of Treaties, 1712-1763. International Law Behind the Scenes of Early Enlightenment Diplomacy") have been published.  More information on the project's  website .

  (image source: VIU ) dr. Stefano Cattelan will present at the 5th edition of The Venice Multidisciplinary World Conference on Republics and Republicanism held at the Venice International University on 26-28 June 2026. More information on the conference website .

  (image source: Stämpfli ) dr. Léna Sylvestre contributed a chapter in the collective volume  Langues et paroles du droit. Actes des journées internationales de la Société d'histoire du droit tenues à l'Université de Lausanne du 1er au 4e juin 2023 , published in the "Collection lausannoise" of Stämpfli (edited by Denis Tappy and Anne Peroz). More information with the publisher .

(image source ( ACFHAB )  The Conference of Historical and Archaeological Societies of Belgium will return to Brussels for its next edition. The event will take place at the Palace of the Academies 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 devoted to Institutional and Legal History , chaired by Prof. em. Jean-Marie Cauchies with dr. Marc Ronvaux and Prof. Frederik Dhondt as vice-presidents and dr. Nicolas Simon as secretary, will bring together a series of academic presentations. Prof. Frederik Dhondt   will present on “ The little-known memoir of the Count of Calenberg on the Ostend Company (1725) ”, as detailed in the official programme.  Learn more about the program and details here .

  (image source: TREATYLAB )  Three full-time PhD vacancies for the ERC Consolidator Grant TREATYLAB ("The Labyrinth of Treaties, 1712-1763. International Law Behind the Scenes of Early Enlightenment Diplomacy") have been published.  More information on the project's website .

  (image source: Premio Bartolo da Sassoferrato ) Next Saturday ( 13 June at 16:30 ), dr. Stefano Cattelan (JURI/CORE) is due to receive the prestigious Premio Bartolo da Sassoferrato per le scienze giuridiche e politico-sociali for his monograph Mare Clausum. The Formation of the Law of the Sea in Pre-Modern State Practice and Legal Doctrine (c. 1350–1650) (Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, Legal History Library, eds. Dirk Heirbaut, Michelle McKinley, Matthew C. Mirow & Remco Van Rhee, vol. 77/ Studies in the History of International Law, ed. Randall Lesaffer, vol. 28, 2025).  This prestigious legal award is named after Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1313-1357), the renowned fourteenth century postglossator or commentator, who continues to live on in the adagium “ nemo bonus jurista nisi bartolista” (no one can be truly called a lawyer if he or she is not familiar with Bartolus’ work). Among the other laureates this year: Sabino Cassese, president of the Corte Costituzionale (the It...

  (image source: Università di Padova) Dr. Stefano Cattelan will present on Venetian neutrality in eighteenth-century diplomacy at the University of Padova on 22 May 2026. Read more here .

  (source: University of Florence ) Dr. Stefano Cattelan will present his recent monograph Mare Clausum: The Formation of the Law of the Sea in Pre-modern State Practice and Legal Doctrine (c. 1350–1650)  at the University of Florence on 19 May 2026. More information here .

(image source: TREATYLAB )  Three full-time PhD vacancies for the ERC Consolidator Grant TREATYLAB ("The Labyrinth of Treaties, 1712-1763. International Law Behind the Scenes of Early Enlightenment Diplomacy") have been published.  More information on the project's website .

    Dra.  Léna Sylvestre  obtained the permission to submit her PhD Dissertation (Joint PhD agreement CY Cergy Paris Université/Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and defend it publicly on  Saturday 23 May 2026 at 09:30. The candidate will defend her dissertation entitled " L’influence de la pluralité linguistique dans l’élaboration et l’application de normes internationales. Étude de cas historique du régime multilingue de l’Organisation des Nations Unies " before a jury consisting of: - Prof. Dr. Renaud Baumert (CY) (president) - Prof. Dr. Dirk Heirbaut (UGent/KVAB-Academia Europaea)  - Prof. Dr. Sylvie Monjean-Decaudin (Sorbonne Université) - Dr. Gésa Dannenberg (CY) - Prof. Dr. Paul De Hert (VUB) Supervisors are Prof. Dr.  Caroula Argyriadis-Kervégan  (main supervisor, CY) and Prof. Dr.  Frederik Dhondt  (VUB). Address: Auditorium de la Maison de la Recherche SHS - Annie Ernaux - Université CY Cergy Paris- Universit...

  (image source: CRHiDI ) Abstract: This conference revisits the history of the law of the sea through the lens of "claimed seas" — that is, the recurrent attempts by political authorities to assert jurisdiction, dominion, or special prerogatives over maritime spaces. Rather than presenting the early modern period as a linear triumph of mare liberum and the freedom of the seas, the lecture explores the enduring tension between claims to maritime dominion and arguments for free navigation from the late Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on examples from the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, and wider oceanic worlds, it will examine how legal categories such as jurisdictio, dominium, occupation, prescription, and neutrality were mobilised in diplomatic practice and political thought. Particular attention will be paid to the interaction between doctrine and state practice, as well as to the role of smaller powers in shaping evolving conceptions of maritime o...

(image source: UniMC ) Dr. Stefano Cattelan wil present at the University of Macerata on 22 April, with replies by Prof. Luigi Lacchè (Macerata) and Prof. Andrea Caligiuri (Macerata). See poster here . (source: University of Macerata )

PhD scholarship: PhD Collective negotiations in sovereign default and corporate insolvency   Description The Faculty of Law and Criminology , Department Interdisciplinary Study of Law (JURI) , is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant. More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains: Our team is looking for a doctoral student (bursary position) for the project ‘Collective negotiations in sovereign default and corporate insolvency (1890- 1920)’. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, crises caused by defaulting states were discussed in committees of bondholders. These committees coordinated the negotiations and defended the interests of individual bondholders. The candidate will conduct research in archives. Based on an analysis of source material, the strategies developed to reconcile the interests of multiple bondholders will be exa...

  (image source: SFDI ) Dr. Raphaël Cahen (guest lecturer) has contributed a lemma on the Belgian professor of international law Edouard Descamps for the Galerie des internationalistes  of the French Society of International Law ( SFDI ). First paragraph: Issu d’une famille catholique, Descamps étudie le droit et les sciences politiques à Namur et à Louvain jusqu’à l’obtention de son doctorat en droit (1869) et d’un doctorat en sciences politiques et administratives (1870). Alors qu’il est déjà avocat au barreau de Mons, il s’inscrit à celui de Paris où il parfait ses études à la Faculté de droit lors de la guerre franco-prussienne. En 1872, à 25 ans, il débute sa carrière universitaire à Louvain en tant que titulaire du cours de droit administratif. Il y restera professeur jusqu’en 1932, après avoir enseigné une grande variété de cours, dont celui de Droit des gens à partir de 1881 (il succède à Charles Périn, son ancien professeur). Doyen de la faculté de droit à quatre repr...