OPINIE: Over Taubira en Pécresse (knack.be)

 

(bron: google play)

Knack.be publiceerde een opiniebijdrage van uw dienaar rond de recentste evoluties in de présidentielles.

Eerste paragraaf:

De succesvolle lancering van Valérie Pécresse via het (interne, maar virtuele) ledencongres bij LR heeft de Franse presidentiële campagne opgeschrikt uit een tot nu toe kabbelend scenario. Iedereen lijkt te wachten op een volgende wending in de "netflixisation" van de campagne. Vooral ter linkerzijde is de druk bijzonder hoog. Bij gebrek aan betere indicatoren geven de peilingen momenteel aan dat geen enkel van de drie voornaamste kandidaten (Mélenchon, Jadot, Hidalgo) zich kan plaatsen voor de tweede ronde. Intussen wordt het nieuws beheerst door Valérie Pécresse en Eric Zemmour, bovenop een mediatieke sfeer die de afgelopen jaren ethisch en cultureel erg naar rechts is opgeschoven.

Lees verder op knack.be. 

ARTICLE: ​Una paz europea [Felipe V y la Guerra de Sucesión polaca] (Desperta Ferro n° 55 (Dec 2021)

 

(image source: DespertaFerro)

Abstract:

La fuerza militar no hizo posible una victoria decisiva en clave clausewitziana en la Guerra de Sucesión polaca. Los bloques borbónico y austriaco tuvieron que negociar una solución pactada a la cual se amoldasen las reclamaciones existentes sin tensar excesivamente el orden internacional nacido de los tratados de paz de Utrecht, Rastatt y Baden. La diferencia esencial entre este conflicto y la Guerra de la Cuádruple Alianza consiste en el papel de las potencias marítimas, que habían permanecido neutrales en la disputa entre Carlos VI y Luis XV. Aunque sus propuestas no eran incompatibles con el desenlace final, Francia y Austria resolvieron la disputa directamente.

Read more (and buy the issue) on DespertaFerro's website. 

INTERVIEW: TerZake over Valérie Pécresse

(bron afbeelding: Wikimedia Commons)

Deborah Votquenne interviewde me maandag over de kandidatuur van Valérie Pécresse voor de Franse presidentsverkiezingen.

Dit kan worden herbekeken op VRTNU (tweede item van de dag).

BOOK PRESENTATION: Ed JONES CORREDERA, The Diplomatic Enlightenment (MS Teams, 14 DEC 2021)

 

(image source: Brill)

The Research Group CORE and the UNED co-organise a digital book launch on 14 December 12:30-14:00. The publisher provides a discount code to participants. 

More information (including RSVP procedure) on the CORE Website.

More information on the book here.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRY: "Treaty on the Establishment of Peace Throughout Christendom (1464)", in: Hélène RUIZ FABRI (ed.), Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law [Oxford Public International Law] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)

 

(image source: OPIL)

First paragraph:

1 The Treaty on the Establishment of Peace Throughout Christendom (‘Treaty’ or ‘Peace Plan’) is a draft treaty that was proposed in 1463 and 1464 by King George of Podebrad of Bohemia (1420–1471) to the Kings of Hungary, Poland, and France, as well as to the Republic of Venice. Formulated as a plan for a crusade against the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (1432–1481), who had taken Constantinople in 1453, the text provided for the creation of an institutional framework comprising all European sovereigns, in equal ‘universal fraternity’, and has been portrayed by late...

Read more on Oxford Public International Law. 

HOOFDSTUK: "Hefboom naar sociale hervormingen? Bekwaamheidskiesrecht als surrogaat voor algemeen stemrecht, 1883-1893", in: Koen NEVENS, Kristof SALOMEZ, Evelien TIMBERMONT & Guido VAN LIMBERGHEN (eds.), Liber Amicorum Wilfried Rauws. Werk opgedragen aan een onvolprezen jurist. (Antwerpen: Intersentia, 2021), 845-859. ISBN 9789400014183

 

(bron afbeelding: Intersentia)

Abstract (English):

The Law of 24 August 1883 created the possibility for holders of a degree of primary education to participate in local elections. This reform, sponsored by the last homogenous Liberal government, was an attempt to delay the introduction of universal male suffrage, linking intellectual aptitude to electoral capacity. The system lasted ten years, and foresaw the possibility to pass an exam and obtain the primary education degree. The Belgian press, official statistics and earlier historical research allow to map this curious phenomenon.

Meer over het boek bij de uitgever. 

INTERVIEW: Jersey, Frankrijk en het VK (Radio 1:de Ochtend, 2 NOV 2021)

 

(afbeelding: Victor Hugo op Jersey (1852); bron: Wikimedia Commons)

Ik was vanochtend te gast bij deOchtend (Radio 1, Leen De Witte) over de diplomatieke spanningen rond de visrechten voor inwoners van Jersey (een "self-governed dependency" van de Britse kroon, restant van het hertogdom Normandië). 

Herbeluister de interventie hier (rond 1:37).

CONFERENCE RECORDING: "Teaching international law at King Leopold's Foreign Office"

The organisers of the conference "Law(s) and International Relations" (Orléans, LeStudium, 15-17 September 2021) have been so kind as to broadcast the recordings of the interventions online. See above for my intervention and here for the others.

CHAPTER: "L' alliance franco-anglaise contre Philippe V. Le droit au service de l'ordre ?" in: Joaquim ALBAREDA SALVADÓ & Núria SALLÉS VILASECA (eds.), La reconstrucción de la política internacional española. El reinado de Felipe V [Collection de la Casa de Velázquez; vol. 189] (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2021), pp. 119-136. ISBN 9788490963470

Book abstract:

Este libro pretende aportar una visión de conjunto de la política exterior española durante el reinado de Felipe V, entre 1713 y 1746, periodo en el que se consolidaron la dinastía borbónica en España y el sistema de equilibrio europeo forjado en la paz de Utrecht. Aborda este asunto crucial, que no había sido tratado de forma sistemática, mediante una visión global y multidimensional que pone de relieve los vínculos existentes entre política interior y exterior, a la vez que analiza el rol de la monarquía de España en el contexto europeo. Expone las líneas maestras de esta política exterior de los gobiernos de Felipe V, analiza tanto los objetivos que perseguía (territoriales, políticos y económicos) como la reacción que suscitó en Europa, y, finalmente, efectúa un balance de sus características y de sus logros.

See book on Google Books (above) or check the publisher's website. 

See OpenEdition.org for the open access-version.

CHAPTER: "Edouard Descamps: From ‘negative neutrality’ to ‘positive pacigerate’": in P. Sean MORRIS (ed.), The League of Nations and the Development of International Law. A New Intellectual History of the Advisory Committee of Jurists [Routledge Research in Legal History] (London: Routledge, 2021), pp. 156-179, ISBN 9780367897536

(image source: Routledge)

Abstract:

Descamps (1847-1933), the president of the ‘Advisory Committee of Jurists for the Establishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice’ (ACJ), is the author of a consistent monograph on Belgian neutrality in 1902. His condemnation of ‘negative’ classical neutrality (premised on impartiality and abstention) and his advocacy of a ‘positive’ ‘pacigérat’ remained a core conviction in his career as international lawyer. This chapter will shed light on Descamps’ career at the crossroads of academia, teaching, and international law (I), to devote substantive attention to his analysis of neutrality (II) and, finally (III), to his interpretation of the compatibility of ‘pacigérat’ with the League of Nations’ security system. Descamps’ role as President of the ACJ, and his position in the debate on the sources of international law to be applied by the PCIJ should be appreciated in the light of these successive stages of development.

(read more here: DOI  10.4324/9781003020882-8)

INTERVIEW: Franse présidentielles (VRT Radio 1/TerZake)

(bron afbeelding: Wikimedia Commons)

Ik sprak gisteren met Radio 1 (De Ochtend; Jan Van Delm) en vandaag met TerZake (Inge Vrancken) over de Franse présidentielles van 2022.

REVIEW SYMPOSIUM: Martti Koskenniemi's "To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth" (Völkerrechtsblog)

(image source: völkerrechtsblog)

I am honoured to have been invited to Völkerrechtsblog's review symposium on Martti Koskenniemi's To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth. Legal Imagination and International Power 1350-1870 (CUP 2021).

The text can be read here (DOI 10.17176/20210824-112559-0).

INTERVIEW: Franse régionales (TerZake, 28 juni 2021)

 

(bron afbeelding: Wikimedia Commons)

Ik sprak met Willem Van Mullem (TerZake, VRT) over de Franse regionale verkiezingen.

Bekijk het fragment hier (vanaf 17:38).

ARTIKEL: "Rogier versus Jottrand: dure beledigingen in de Belgische opiniepers (1861-1863)" (Pro Memorie. Bijdragen tot de Rechtsgeschiedenis der Nederlanden XXIII (2021), nr. 1, 79-109 [OPEN ACCESS]

 

Abstract:

The Belgian Constitution guaranteed political liberty, exemplified by the mandatory competence of the jury for judging political and press offences. However, the constitution did not literally mention quasi-delicts. In 1861, liberal statesman Charles Rogier was insulted by the ultramontanist Catholic newspaper Le Journal de Bruxelles. He sued the newspaper’s printer under tort law, and obtained a considerable amount of damages, bypassing the jury. Progressive radical lawyer Lucien Jottrand, former member of the Constituent Assembly, argued at length that the constitution exclusively reserved competence for both civil and criminal liability to the jury. The Brussels Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation rejected this reasoning and insisted on the superior natural law-origins of tort law. Yet, this decision created a risk of private censorship, well documented in the press and in private archives on the legal battle around the Journal de Bruxelles.

Lees het artikel hier (DOI 10.5117/PM2021.1.005.DHON). 

Update (1 Jan 2023): dit artikel is in open access beschikbaar.

INTERVIEW: De Franse regionale verkiezingen (Het Nieuwsblad, 21 JUN 2021)

 

(bron afbeelding: Het Nieuwsblad)

Ik sprak met Wim Dehandschutter (Het Nieuwsblad) over de Franse regionale verkiezingen.

Lees meer hier. Een kortere versie verscheen ook in de Gazet van Antwerpen en het Belang van Limburg. 

INTERVIEW: Waarom Macron klappen krijgt (Maarten Rabaey, De Morgen, 19 JUN 2021)

(Bron afbeelding: De Morgen)

Ik werd door Maarten Rabaey (De Morgen) geïnterviewd over de regionale en departementale verkiezingen in Frankrijk.

Lees de tekst hier.

REFERENCE ENTRY: "The Peace of Utrecht (1713)" in Michael KOCSIS (ed.), The Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights (Heidelberg: Springer, 2020)

 

(image source: Springer)

Abstract:

The Peace of Utrecht consisted of several bilateral treaties concluded between 1713 and 1715 in Utrecht, in the Dutch Republic. These treaties ended the War of the Spanish Succession, which originated in the decease of Charles II (1661-1700), the last Habsburg king of the composite Spanish monarchy. These treaties did not involve Emperor Charles VI nor the Holy Roman Empire, who concluded peace separately with Louis XIV of France at the Peace Treaties of Rastatt (6 March 1714; Dumont 1731, 415-423) and Baden (7 September 1714, 436-444). The Peace of Utrecht was based on a partition of the Spanish monarchy, and thus on the balance of power between the Bourbon and Habsburg dynasties. Britain played a seminal role, and established its maritime supremacy to the detriment of its former ally, the Dutch Republic. Charles VI of Habsburg and Philip V of Bourbon, who had been contenders for Charles II’s succession, only concluded a final peace treaty in 1725. The Peace of Utrecht furthered the spread of Most Favoured Nations-clauses in bilateral Treaties of Trade and Navigation, and assured Britain of Gibraltar, Minorca, Acadia and Newfoundland. 

(read the entry here: DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_611-1)

ARTICLE: Justice and equality for all? Proportional representation in Belgium and France (1883-1921) (Seqûëncia XLI (2020), nr. 86, 28-62

(image source: seqüência)

 

Abstract:

Whereas 19th century Belgium is traditionally framed as heavily dependent on France, this image ought to be nuanced for its political system. During what Pierre Rosanvallon named the transnational ‘proportional moment’ (1899-1914), the introduction of Proportional Representation in parliamentary elections generated a French interest in Belgium as the ‘electoral laboratory of Europe’. Arguments raised in the French Chambre des Députés were similar to those used in Belgian Parliament. The present article addresses the structural differences between the electoral debate in both states. Whereas Belgian constitutional doctrine adapted smoothly to the introduction of proportionality (Oscar Orban/Paul Errera) and held a moderate position bordering on that of Hans Kelsen, French doctrine was divided between the Parisian Adhémar Esmein, who defended the majority system as the bedrock of republicanism, and provincial professors of constitutional law, who had corporatist ideas, or were in favour of judicial review (Joseph-Barthélémy, Léon Duguit). Raymond Carré de Malberg’s condemnation of proportional representation as impossible, or as the stepping-stone to direct democracy, ought to be situated within this context.

Read the full article here: DOI 10.5007/2177-7055.2020v41n86p28.