VUB Contextual Research in Law

  The MICOLL ERC project organised the international conference entitled “Have the Gods Fallen? An Interdisciplinary Reconsideration of Lex Mercatoria and Commercial Revolution”, which took place in Venice from 17 to 20 June 2026, between the Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani (DSCV) and Venice International University (VIU – Isola di San Servolo).  The event, held under the direction of Prof. Stefania Gialdroni (University of Padua), formed part of the final-stage activities of the ERC Consolidator Grant MICOLL (2021–2027), dedicated to the historical development of commercial law and language between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. The discussions focused on the plurality of legal practices, the circulation of commercial vocabularies, and the role of linguistic and institutional fragmentation in shaping medieval and early modern commerce.  Within this framework, the Venice meeting contributed to the broader MICOLL research agenda on the mobility of legal concep...

(image source: British Legal History Conference 2026 ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher will speak at the British Legal History Conference  in Nottingham next week. More information on the programme here .

The EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History worked in 2025-2026 on the theme " The End(s) of War" . Students from UPF Barcelona (prof. Alfons Aragoneses), CY Cergy Paris Université (Prof. Caroula Argyriadis-Kervégan), Univerza v Ljubljani (Prof. Katja Škrubej) and VUB (Prof. Frederik Dhondt ) worked hybridly, online and in-person. Following the peak event (February/March, this year in Barcelona ), students finalised their research. Every individual or collective contribution appears on the CoLeCo's blog from 9 June on. More information here .

(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 .

  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: Europeana ) On Wednesday 29 April, drs. Louis Debersaques  will present on the aims, sources and structure of his PhD dissertation on building and its legal framework in 19th and 20thC Belgium. This will take place in room B 4.08, 13:05-14:35 . Catering is foreseen.  RVSP with Frederik dot dhondt at vub dot be.

  The website for the 59th Congress of the Federation of Archaeological and Historical Societies of Belgium/12th Congress of French-Speaking Societies of History and Archaeology of Belgium (ACfHAB) is now fully functional. Proposals for the section  Institutional and Legal History (incl. sigillography)  can be sent through the form on the website, or directly to the President (prof. em. Jean-Marie Cauchies/ARB), the Vice-Presidents (Marc Ronvaux - Prof.  Frederik Dhondt ) or  Secretary (dr. Nicolas Simon/ARB). More information  here .

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...

The website for the 59th Congress of the Federation of Archaeological and Historical Societies of Belgium/12th Congress of French-Speaking Societies of History and Archaeology of Belgium (ACfHAB) is now fully functional. Proposals for the section Institutional and Legal History (incl. sigillography) can be sent through the form on the website, or directly to the President (prof. em. Jean-Marie Cauchies/ARB), the Vice-Presidents (Marc Ronvaux - Prof. Frederik Dhondt ) or  Secretary (dr. Nicolas Simon/ARB). More information here .

  (image source: Edinburgh UP ) Our alumnus dr. dr. Niels Fieremans ( JointPhD UGent/VUB 2023 , D. Heirbaut/J. Dumolyn - D. De ruysscher) published his prize-winning doctoral dissertation in open access with Edinburgh University Press. Abstract: Late medieval Bruges was a commercial hub that connected Hanseatic, English, Scottish, Portuguese, Spanish, Aragonese, and Italian traders. This book focuses on the conflict resolution of the aldermen and how merchants operated within this legal framework. The key question being whether Bruges was a city of justice. Although this was sometimes claimed by travellers, a lot of merchants confronted with the practicalities of conflict resolution in Bruges, disagreed. Fieremans analyses how customary law, institutional frameworks, and commerce intersected and were challenged by the aldermen's pursuit of justice. By clarifying the working of the aldermen, it advances our knowledge of the basic mechanisms of a late medieval law court and the evol...

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: 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 .

Hugo A. Brethenoux von Vietinghoff joins CORE as PhD student under the supervision of Prof. dr. Dave De ruysscher. He will work on FWO Senior Fundamental Research Project G0ACT25N,  Cities as Breeding Grounds: Legal Change in Financial Law (c. 1620–c. 1750). Hugo presents himself as follows: Trained in legal theory and analysis (ENS, EHESS, Paris Nanterre) and completing an intensive B.A. in Art History at the Sorbonne, I work at the intersection of law, culture, and historical research. My academic and professional path leads me to study how legal norms change through social and institutional interactions, particularly in European transnational settings. I focus on the development of financial and commercial law and judicial practices from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with regular engagement in archival research. Speaking French, English, German and Russian, experienced in archival work, I bring an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective that aligns closely ...

  (image source: KCOWV/CRALO ) Prof. Dave De ruysscher and prof. Frederik Dhondt contributed to vol. LIX of the Handelingen/Bulletin  of the Royal Commission for the Publication of Old Laws and Ordinances of Belgium (ISBN 9782960272451). The fulltext of their contributions can be read in open access on rechtsreeks.be .

  (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 ...