ARTICLE: “John Gilissen and the Teaching of Legal History in Brussels” [Teaching Legal History – History of Legal Teaching, ed. Łukasz Jan KORPOROWICZ] (Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Iuridica 99 (2022), 19-50) (OPEN ACCESS)

 

(Image source: Uni Lodz)

Abstract:

John Gilissen (1912–1988) was a high-profile legal academic at the Université libre de Bruxelles (°1834) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (°1969). Personal – albeit fragmentary – archival records deposited with these universities permit to reconstruct his teaching (both ex cathedra-courses for big groups and intensive tutorials), impressive global scientific network and insatiable scientific curiosity. Gilissen is the author of standard works on many aspects of domestic legal history (both public and private), and acquired renown as the secretary-general of the Société Jean Bodin pour l’histoire comparative des institutions. His influential position as a public prosecutor, law professor and legal historian generates a unique insider’s perspective on the confessional, linguistic and constitutional transformation of the country from World War One to the First Reform of the State. The current law curriculum at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel still bears marks of Gilissen’s comparative approach to the history of civil law and his interest in the contemporary relevance of institutional history.

Read more here (DOI 10.18778/0208-6069.99.03).

CONFERENCE PAPER: "Trade and Empire at the Congress of Soissons (1728-1730)" [Panel Non-legal professions and legal discourse on trade and empire] (6th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History (Lissabon: Universidade da Lisboa, 23 JUN 2022))

 

(image: Lisbon School of Law; source: ESCLH Blog)

Last week on Thursday, I presented an aspect of my recent longer article on the Congress of Soissons (see SSRN) at the 6th Biennial Conference of the European Society for Comparative Legal History, organised by Prof. Pedro Barbas Homem and dr. Ana Isabel Barcelo Caldeira Fouto of the Universidade da Lisboa. The paper was part of Panel 16 ("Non-Legal Professions and Legal Discourse on Trade and Empire"), with contributions by drs. Florenz Volkaert (UGent/FWO) and dr. Inge Van Hulle (MPILHLT, Frankfurt am Main).

All abstracts and speaker cvs can be downloaded for free in the abstracts book.

OPINIE: "Macron verplicht tot parlementeren" (De Morgen, 21 JUN 2022)

 Ik schreef een stukje voor De Morgen over de tweede ronde van de Franse parlementsverkiezingen. Lees meer hier.

COMMENTAAR: de Tijd over "zwarte zondag" in Frankrijk (20 JUN 2022)

 Ik schreef een stukje voor de Tijd over de "Zwarte Zondag". Zie hier.

INTERVIEW: institutionele mogelijkheden na de verkiezingen voor de Assemblée Nationale (VRT NWS, 20 JUN 2022)

Gianni Paelinck (VRT NWS) interviewde me over de institutionele mogelijkheden na de verkiezingen van de Assemblée Nationale gisteren.

Lees verder hier.

INTERVIEW: Slotaflevering expertpanel Frankrijk (de Volkskrant, 20 JUN 2022)

 Vandaag verscheen op de site van de Volkskrant (morgen gedrukt) de laatste afleving van het expertpanel over Frankrijk, n.a.v. de wetgevende verkiezingen van gisteren en vorige week.

Lees meer hier.

ARTICLE: “ Bringing the divided Powers of Europe nearer one another: The Congress of Soissons, 1728-1730” (Nuova Antologia Militare III (2022), pp. 535-642)

 

Abstract:

This contribution reconstructs the Congress of Soissons (1728-1730), a consequence of the Parisian Preliminaries (31 May 1727), an agreement that prevented the eruption of a general war in Europe between the League of Hanover (France, Britain-Hanover, Dutch Republic) and the League of Vienna (Emperor, Spain, Brandenburg-Prussia). The ‘sleeping’ congress did not generate a final peace agreement. Soissons was a congress of peacekeeping (Burkhardt), and in part contributed to the European culture of peace engineering (Ghervas). Besides the central commercial claims that opposed the Maritime Powers to Spain, the delegations reflected on geopolitical questions from the East Indies to Scandinavia, the Baltic and the Mediterranean. They were solicited by multiple actors of the European Society of Princes (Bély), down to the level of private individuals, who hoped for diplomatic intercession. France’s position as equidistant director of various bilateral and collective talks becomes clear through the itineraries of the delegates between Soissons, Fontainebleau, Compiègne and Versailles. The sociability of the congress is not purely curial or Parisian, but also includes life on the countryside. French archives highlight the material and logistical challenges of turning a regional hub as Soissons into an international one. The Hop Archives, which contain a synthesis of the daily reports of the Dutch delegation, and the British diplomatic archives (State Papers Foreign) are complemented by the press and the letters of George Lyttelton, who spent several months in Soissons on his Grand Tour. Not only this public circulation of news on the congress, but also the material culture of the print resources consulted by the diplomats allow to identify this eighteenth-century meeting place within the broader European republic of books, news and letters.

Download the full version here or on SSRN. 

BOOK REVIEW: Review of Gabriela Frei, Great Britain, International Law and the Evolution of Maritime Strategic Thought, 1856-1914. Oxford: Oxford university Press, 2020 (Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international XXIV (2022), No. 2, pp. 292-297)

(image source: UniversityPressScholarship)

I wrote a review of Gabriela Frei's monograph on Great Britain, International Law and the Evolution of Maritime Strategic Thought (Oxford Historical Monographs, 2020) for the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international.

The text can be read on Brill's site (DOI 10.1163/15718050-12340205).

OPINIE: "Frans links kan tellen" (de Tijd, 13 JUN 2022)

 Ik schreef een stukje voor de website van de Tijd. Meer informatie hier.

ANALYSE: "Samen tegen Macron: het Nupes-programma" (SamPol, XXIX (2022), nr. 6, pp. 34-35)

 Ik schreef voor SamPol een stukje over het programma van de "Nupes". Meer hier.