ARTICLE: "Neutralité permanente, interprétations mutantes: la neutralité belge à travers trois traités de juristes", Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis/Revue d'Histoire du Droit/The Legal History Review LXXXVI (2018), nr. 1-2, pp. 188-214

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

The permanent neutrality imposed on Belgium by the great powers (1830-1839) seems a precursor of a system of mandatory arbitration and the outlawing of war. At least, this image transpires in the writings of Ernest Nys (1903) and Edouard Descamps (1902), prominent voices of the ‘Gentle Civilizer of Nations’. Sixty years earlier, geopolitical circumstance, state practice and classical law of nations doctrine had brought Wilhelm Arendt (1845) to a more prudent point of view. The confrontation of both strands in doctrine with Belgian policy shows a complex sui generis combination of pragmatism and genuine fear of the guarantors’ wrath.  

DOI 10.1163/15718190-08612P09

BOOK PRESENTATION: Laurent DE SUTTER, Après la loi (VUB L&C Talk, 25 JUN 2018)

(image source: VUB/CORE)

My colleague, legal theorist Laurent De Sutter will present his latest Après la loi [Perspectives Critiques] (Paris: PUF, 2017) at the occasion of a faculty Law & Criminology Talk, on 25 June 2018. I will be happy to introduce the volume.

More information here.

ARTICLE: ‘Arrestez et pillez contre toute sorte de droit’: Trade and the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720). Legatio: the Journal for Renaissance and Early Modern Diplomacy Studies I (2017), 97-130

(image source: Wikimedia Commons)

The first issue of Legatio: the Journal for Renaissance and Early Modern Diplomacy Studies was published in open access yesterday.

I contributed an article on "Trade and the War of the Quadruple Alliance".

Abstract:

The War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-1720) was a conflict between Spain and the other major European powers over the balance of power in Italy. France and Britain jointly intervened on the side of the attacked party, Emperor Charles VI. In February 1720, the conflict was resolved when Philip V of Spain finally adhered to the Treaty of London (2 August 1718). The decision to go to war was contentious at the French court. For the benefit of public opinion, Philip, duke of Orléans and Regent of France, had to wage war against the Spanish Prime Minister, Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, rather than against the Sun King's grandson, Philip V. Moreover, whereas French and British diplomats found consensus as regards maintaining the principles of the Peace of Utrecht (11 April 1713), they remained commercial rivals. This article lifts a tip of the veil covering the complex trade relations during the conflict. Spain tried to placate and reassure French merchants, and conversely to punish their British counterparts. The British fleet patrolled the Mediterranean, searching French vessels as well as those of neutral states. The Emperor, though allied to France and Britain, could not prevent Neapolitan corsairs from preying on their trade. Moreover, French ships illegally furnished the Spanish army. Finally, France and Britain hoped to quell the abuse of neutral powers in the conflict (Tuscany, Genoa, Venice) by imposing upon them a duty to chase Spanish privateers from their harbours.

 Discover the rest of the journal (open access) here.

(DOI LEGATIO.2017.04)

WRG Talk: Dr. Magnus RESSEL (Frankfurt), Trade embargoes and the right of neutrals in times of war in Early Modern Europe. The case of Switzerland between 1688-1714 (VUB, 21 JUN 2018)

(image source: VUB/CORE)

Dr. Magnus Ressel (Johann-Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) will hold a talk at the VUB (Research Group CORE, Department JURI) at my invitation, with the title Trade embargoes and the right of neutrals in times of war in Early Modern Europe. The case of Switzerland between 1688-1714.

More information here.