CONFERENCE PAPER: "Legal arguments in the debate on recognition of Italian independence in Belgian parliament (November 1861)" [Entangled international and national legal orders in the long 19th century] (Zurich, University of Zurich, 2-3 March 2020)

I had the pleasure to deliver a paper at a conference organised jointly by the University of Zurich
(Chair of Legal History) and the Research Group CORE (VUB). Program below.

Abstract:

Abstract

The debate on the recognition of Victor Emanuel II of Piemonte-Sardinia (1820-1878)’s title as King of Italy in November 1861[1] pitted Belgian Liberals and Catholics against each other.[2] Precisely the years 1860-1870 were the high point of conflict between the radical ultramontanist Catholics and their counterparts, freemason liberals, who challenged the authoritarian ecclesiastical system and its de facto monopoly on education. Catholic volunteers joined the Papal Zouaves, pretending not to be bound by international treaties.[3] Catholic capital was invested in Austrian, papal and Neapolitan assets.[4]

The constitutional principles advanced by Cavour (extension of the 1848 Statuto Albertino) created sympathy with the Belgian liberal party.[5] By contrast, a substantial number of Catholic MPs thought recognition would violate Belgium’s obligation of permanent neutrality under article VII of the Treaty of London (19 Apr 1839, 88 CTS 421).[6] Francis II of the Two-Sicilies (1836-1894)’s fate was likened to that of the Belgian monarch in case of a foreign invasion. The extension of the Statuto in the South was compared to that of the Dutch constitution in Belgium (1814-1815), or to the French invasion (1792, 1794). Comparisons with the Belgian revolt (1830-1832)[7] appealed to long-term debates on civil war, secession and third-party involvement in internal armed conflicts.[8] The liberal government pointed to the distinction of factual and legal aspects of recognition, highlighted commercial interests and the need for legal certainty for private persons.[9] Catholic opponents thought this attitude possibly endorsed endless Italian irredentism.

I will use classical law of nations doctrine (Klüber,[10] Martens,[11] Vattel[12]), as well as the digitized Catholic Journal de Bruxelles and the liberal Indépendance Belge to map the various positions on a continuum between constitutional and international law.  The nationality principle was taken as the starting point for many legal reasonings in the generation of the Institut de Droit International, which was close to Belgian doctrinal liberalism[13]. However, Catholic counter-arguments reverted back to the Spanish Neo-scholastics, as well as to positivist and horizontal conceptions of the law of nations.

Bibliography

Armitage D, Civil Wars : A History in Ideas (YUP New Haven and London 2017)

Clark C and Kaiser W (eds.), Culture Wars: Secular-Clerical Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge University Press 2003)

Clough SB and Saladino S (eds.), A History of Modern Italy: Documents, Readings & Commentary (Columbia University Press 1968)

Crawford J, The Creation of States in International Law (Clarendon Press 2011)

Dhondt F, ‘Neutralité Permanente, Interprétations Mutantes: La Neutralité Belge à Travers Trois Traités de Juristes’ (2018) LXXXVI The Legal History Review 188

Dumoulin M, Les relations économiques italo-belges (1861-1914) (Palais des Académies 1990)

Jacquemyns G, Langrand-Dumonceau, Promoteur d’une puissance financière catholique (Université libre de Bruxelles 1960)

Jarrett M, The Congress of Vienna and Its Legacy: War and Great Power Diplomacy after Napoleon (IB Tauris 2013)

Klüber JL, Droit des gens moderne de l’Europe avec un supplément contenant une bibliothèque choisie du droit des gens (ed. A. Ott) (Guillaumin 1861)

Mamiani della Rovere T, Rights of Nations, or, the New Law of European States Applied to the Affairs of Italy (Roger Acton tr, Jeffs 1860)

Mancini PS, Diritto Internazionale (Prelezioni con un saggio sul Machiavelli) (Marghieri 1873)

Martens GF von, Précis du droit des gens moderne de l'Europe, fondé sur les traités et l'usage; pour servir d'introduction à un cours politique et diplomatique (ed. S. Pinheiro-Ferreira) (Guillaimin 1864)

Frei G, Nir, Ariella and Van Hulle I, ‘The Foreign Enlistment Act, International Law, and British Politics, 1819-2014’ (2016) 38 International History Review 636

Nys E, ‘Notes Sur La Neutralité (Troisième Article)’ (1901) III (2e série) Revue de droit international et de législation comparée 15

——, L’état Indépendant Du Congo et Le Droit International (Hayez 1903)

Reconnaissance du Royaume d’Italie par la Belgique. Discussion de l’adresse à La Chambre des Représentants. Novembre 1861 (de Labroue et Mertens 1861)

Vattel E de, Le droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle (ed. P Pradier-Fodéré, Guillaumin 1863)

Witte E, Le Royaume perdu - Les orangistes belges contre la Révolution (1828-1850) (Éditions Samsa 2016)

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[1] Reconnaissance du Royaume d’Italie par la Belgique. Discussion de l’adresse à La Chambre des Représentants. Novembre 1861 (de Labroue et Mertens 1861).

[2] C Clark and W Kaiser (eds.), Culture Wars: Secular-Clerical Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge University Press 2003).

[3] See Gabriela Frei, Nir, Ariella and Inge Van Hulle, ‘The Foreign Enlistment Act, International Law, and British Politics, 1819-2014’ (2016) 38 International History Review 636.           

[4] Guillaume Jacquemyns, Langrand-Dumonceau, Promoteur d’une puissance financière Catholique (Université libre de Bruxelles 1960).

[5] Shepard Bancroft Clough and Salvatore Saladino (eds.), A History of Modern Italy: Documents, Readings & Commentary (Columbia University Press 1968).

[6] Frederik Dhondt, ‘Neutralité Permanente, Interprétations Mutantes: La Neutralité Belge à Travers Trois Traités de Juristes’ (2018) LXXXVI Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis/Revue d’Histoire du Droit/The Legal History Review 188.

[7] Els Witte, Le Royaume Perdu - Les Orangistes Belges Contre La Révolution (1828-1850) (Éditions Samsa 2016).

[8] David Armitage, Civil Wars : A History in Ideas (YUP New Haven and London 2017); James Crawford, The Creation of States in International Law (Clarendon Press 2011).

[9] Michel Dumoulin, Les relations économiques italo-belges (1861-1914) (Palais des Académies 1990).

[10] Johann Ludwig Klüber, Droit des gens moderne de l’Europe avec un supplément contenant une bibliothèque choisie du droit des gens (ed. A. Ott) (Guillaumin 1861).

[11] Georg Friedrich von Martens, , Précis du droit des gens moderne de l'Europe, fondé sur les traités et l'usage; pour servir d'introduction à un cours politique et diplomatique (ed. S. Pinheiro-Ferreira) (Guillaumin 1864). 

[12] Emer de Vattel, Le droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle (ed. P Pradier-Fodéré,) Guillaumin 1863).

[13] Ernest Nys, ‘Notes sur la neutralité (Troisième Article)’ (1901) III (2e série) Revue de droit international et de législation comparée 15; Ernest Nys, L’état Indépendant du Congo et le droit International (Hayez 1903). Pacquale Stanislao Mancini, Diritto Internazionale (Prelezioni con un saggio sul Machiavelli) (Marghieri 1873).

Entangled international and national legal orders

in the long 19th century 2-3 March 2020, University of Zurich

Monday, 2^nd March 2020, room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich

14,15-14,30: Introductory remarks, Raphael Cahen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Antwerp University), Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina (University of Zurich)

14,30-15,15: Keynote by Andreas Thier (University of Zurich)

15,15-16,00: Frederik Dhondt, Legal arguments in the debate on recognition of Italian independence in Belgian parliament (November 1861) 

16,00-16,45: Pietro Costa (University of Florence), Nation-building and State-building in the ‘long’ Nineteenth Century: Identity Myths and Domination Strategies

16,45-17,15: Coffee Break

17,15-18,00: Raphael Cahen, Constitutional and international entanglements in nineteenth century: the case of the Litigation committee of the French foreign minister and his actors

(1835-1871)

18,00-18,45: Markus J. Prutsch (European Parliament/Heidelberg University), The “Vienna System” and the German Confederation: Stability, Sovereignty and Constitutionalism

Tuesday, 3^rd March 2020, room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich

9,00-9,45: Inge Van Hulle (Tilburg University), Plural normative orders and the negotiation of land rights in West Africa (1880-1920)

9,45-10,30: Lisa Ford (University of New South Wales), Sovereignty, Settlement and International Law: the case of Honduras

10,30-11,00: Coffee Break

11,30-11,45: Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina, Colonial and International Entanglements in Nineteenth-Century Legal Discourses on Land Law and Land Registration

11,45-12,15: Concluding remarks

Room RAA-G-01, University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 59