VUB Contextual Research in Law

  (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...

  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: BRILL ) dr. dr. Gijs Dreijer ( Joint PhD with Exeter, 2021 ) has been awarded the Frank Broeze Prize for his outstanding doctoral thesis on the subject of  The Power and Pains of Polysemy: General Average, Maritime Trade and Normative Practice in the Southern Low Countries (Fifteenth-Sixteenth Centuries)   More information: see announcement by BRILL

  (image source: ARLLFB ) Prof. Laurent De Sutter won the Grand prix de l'Essai 2023  awarded by the Académie de langue et de littérature française de Belgique  for his book Superfaible. Penser au XXIe siècle (Flammarion, 2023). Read more on the Academy's website .

(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 .

(image source: Wikimedia Commons )   Alumnus Maximilien Storme (Master of Law, 2022) won the 2022 MA Thesis award of the Belgian Society of International Law for his work on Edouard Descamps ( Edouard Descamps – Belgisch apostel van vrede door het recht;  supervisor: Prof. Frederik Dhondt; jury: dr. Raphaël Cahen, 80 + 50 p.). This work obtained a score of 18/20 in August 2022 and was read for the prize by an external jury of Belgian academics active at Flemish, French-speaking and foreign universities.  We congratulate Maximilien for this external academic recognition of his outstanding work!

  (image: Napoleon and Czar Alexander I leave after concluding the Peace of Tilsit, source: Wikimedia Commons ) On 7 June, the Institut de France  will celebtrate the award of a subvention of the Fondation Tilsit to dr. Raphaël Cahen , postdoctoral researcher (OZR) and guest professor at our Research Group. This subvention serves as an encouragement for his current research project "Le droit international au Ministère des Affaires étrangères (1793-1870): Socio-histoire des juristes internationalistes."