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.

SYMPOSIUM: The Worlds of Pre-Modern Neutrality (ca. 1400-1800): Norms, Institutions and Practices (Antwerp: Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, 8-9 MAY 2025)

 

(image source: VUB CORE)

It was my pleasure to co-organise with dr. Stefano Cattelan (VUB/CORE) the international symposium "The Worlds of Pre-Modern Neutrality (ca. 1400-1800): Norms, Institutions and Practices" at the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library (Antwerp), with keynote speakers Prof. Eric Schnakenbourg (Nantes) and Prof. Silvia Marzagalli (Nice), as well as almost twenty other speakers. We are grateful to the Library, the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and the research group CORE for their support.

More information here.

CONFERENCE: El Tratado de Viena (1725), un Punto de Inflexión Diplomático ? Le Traité de Vienne (1725) Un tournant diplomatique ? (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 8-9 MAY 2025)

 

(image source: Casa de Velázquez)

I had the privilege to present work-in-progress (with the assistance of dr. Stefano Cattelan/VUB-CORE) at the conference El Tratado de Viena (1725), un Punto de Inflexión Diplomático ? Le Traité de Vienne (1725) Un tournant diplomatique ?, organised by Guillaume Hanotin and María Betlem Castellà i Pujols in the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid. Due to a conflict of dates, this was done online.

More information here.

CHAPTER: "Territory and Jurisdiction in Old Regime Europe", in: Randall LESAFFER (ed.), The Cambridge History of International Law, vol. VI/2: International Law in Old Regime Europe (1660-1775) [The Cambridge History of International Law, ed. Randall LESAFFER] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), pp. 421-465, ISBN 9781108757355

 

(image source: Cambridge University press)

Abstract:

This chapter is a survey of the legal languages used to govern territory, sovereignty and the right of a ruler within a polity. Debates were heavily dominated by feudal and private law-concepts. Sovereigns maintained the diversity of privileges in the territories ruled in the setting of a composite monarchy. Claims and titles could or could not entail consequences for sovereignty. Reservations and exceptions to full internal sovereignty were not uncommon. Succession quarrels (often causes of war), could be solved by treaty, often in conflict with domestic constitutional rules and principles. Mixed polities (Poland-Lithuania, Holy Roman Empire) offered a broad range of argumentative topoi to either confirm or combat overlordship. Internal German questions could quickly escalate to the field of the law of nations through the game of alliances and guarantees. Although republican forms of monarchy and republican oligarchies were on the decline in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, their legal agency was not contested. In extra-European dominions of European sovereigns, the chain of reasoning was significantly lighter, as feudal arguments rarely came into play. Conversely, the agency of subaltern actors in establishing boundaries, or the treatment of native Americans as either allies or subjects provide original avenues of research.

Read the chapter here: DOI 10.1017/9781108757355.016. 

BLOG: "Vrijheid, gelijkheid, onverkiesbaarheid ?" (Nederland Rechtsstaat, 4 APR 2025)

Ik schreef een bijdrage voor Nederland Rechtsstaat, op uitnodiging van Prof. Maurice Adams (Tilburg). Meer informatie hier.

MEDIA: Podcast "de Dag" (NPO)

Ik was te gast op de podcast "de Dag" (NPO, Elisabeth Steinz), over de veroordeling van Marine Le Pen. De podcast kan hier worden herbeluisterd.

MEDIA: interview bij "de tafel van Gert" (Play4/GoPlay)

Ik was op 1 april te gast bij "de Tafel van Gert" (Play4/GoPlay) om toelichting te geven bij de deining rond de veroordeling van Marine Le Pen.

De aflevering kan hier worden herbekeken.

MEDIA: Interviews De Morgen, RTL Nieuws, de Volkskrant, de Tijd

Ik sprak gisteren met De Morgen, de Volkskrant en RTL Nieuws (Nederland) over de veroordeling van Marine Le Pen. Op woensdag sprak ik met de Tijd.

PEAK EVENT: EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History (Warwick: University of Warwick, 13-15 MAR 2025)

 

(image source: EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History)

I was happy to address students and colleagues from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the University of Warwick, the University of Ljubljana and CY Cergy Paris Université at the Peak Event of the 2024-2025 EUTopia Connected Learning Community, organised by dr. Rosie Doyle at the University of Warwick.

More information here.

MEDIA: interviews De Morgen, de Volkskrant

Ik werd door Tine Peeters (De Morgen) geïnterviewd over het blad Charlie Hebdo (zaterdag 4 januari, hier), alsook door Iñaki Oñorbe Genovesi (de Volkskrant) over het heengaan van Jean-Marie Le Pen (woensdag 8 januari, hier).