ARTICLE: "Le savoir politique contre les préjugés Antoine II Pecquet et son Esprit des maximes politiques (1757)" [Diplomatie et Lumières, dir. Jean-Charles SPEECKAERT] (Études sur le XVIIIe siècle n° 52 (2025), 37-59

 

(image source: ULB)

This contribution discusses Antoine II Pecquet's 1757 Esprit des Maximes Politiques pour servir de suite à l'Esprit des Loix du Président de Montesquieu, from the point of view of eighteenth-century in-house foreign office legal advice. It was presented in draft at the 7th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (Augsburg, June 2023) and at the 16th Congress of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (Rome, July 2023). 

Pecquet notably refers to Montesquieu, but even more to Grotius. 

More information here. The journal also appears in open access on openedition.

CONFERENCE: 8th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (Szeged: University of Szeged, 2-4 JUL 2025)

(image source: ESCLH Blog)
 

I was happy to participate in the 8th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History, where I presented the activity report of the ESCLH Blog, presided a panel and spoke in a panel with dr. Stefano Cattelan and dr. Raphaël Cahen (both VUB/CORE), wherein all contributions focused on the law of nations prior to professionalisation in the 1870s.

See here for more information.

CONFERENCE: PHEDRA Encounters (Paris: Ecole Normale Supérieure, 25-27 JUN 2025)

 

(image source: PHEDRA)

I presented at the PHEDRA encounters organised in the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris by Dr. Luisa Brunori (CNRS) around the question of a common European model for business law and its legal history.

More information here.

CONFERENCE: Grotian Law and Modernity at the Dawn of a New Age: 400th anniversary of the first publication of De jure belli ac pacis by Hugo Grotius in 1625 (The Hague: Leiden University, 20 JUN 2025)

 

(image source: Leiden Univ)

I presented at the conference organised by Leiden University, the Grotiana Foundation and many other partners at Leiden University's campus in The Hague, commemorating 400 years of De Iure Belli ac Paris Libri Tres.

More information here.

CONFERENCE: 7ème Rencontre orléanaise d'histoire du droit et d'anthropologie médiévales (Orléans: Hôtel Dupanloup, 2-3 JUN 2025)

 

(image source: MSH Val de Loire)

At the invitation of dr. Pierre-Anne Forcadet (Université d'Orléans/POLEN), I presented on François Laurent and his image of the medieval period in the Histoire du droit des gens et des relations internationales.

More information here.

BOOK: Stefano CATTELAN & Frederik DHONDT (eds.), Small Power Neutrality and the Law of The Sea in the Long Eighteenth Century (ca. 1650–1800). Law as Argument in the Pelagic Arena [History of European Political and Constitutional Thought, eds. Mark SOMOS, Erica BENNER & Laszlo KONTLER] (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2025), ISBN 978-90-04-72442-6, €133,56

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This volume by both younger and more established specialists of legal, maritime, diplomatic, and political history covers the nuanced interplay of neutrality and the law of the sea within Western, Central, and Eastern Europe, emphasising the opening up of the world in the early modern period (i.e. Africa, North America, and the Caribbean). The various faces of neutrality, both in law and politics, appear through commercial, administrative, and geopolitical practical cases and in the writings of famous legal writers. By linking up different sets of knowledge, a kaleidoscope of power configurations and arguments guides the reader through the labyrinth of trade, sea power, and negotiations. 

Contributors:

Stefano Cattelan, Frederik Dhondt, John Freeman, Nora Naguib Leerberg, Christian Pfister-Langanay, Leos Müller, Stephen C. Neff, and Victor Wilson.

Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004728974.

CONFERENCE: Learning about the law: Historical perspectives on public legal education for laypersons and underprivileged groups (Helsinki: University of Helsinki, 20-21 MAY 2025)

(image source: University of Helsinki)

I presented at the conference Learning about the law: Historical perspectives on public legal education for laypersons and underprivileged groups, organised by dr. Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen at the University of Helsinki.

More information here.