ARTICLE: ‘Authorised by the Examples of the Most Renowned Legal Scholars’: Grotius, Moderation and Restraint in Louis xv’s Foreign Office (Grotiana XLVI (2025), 66-110)

(image source: Brill)

 Abstract:

This article delves into three manuscript essays kept at the Archives Diplomatiques of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (La Courneuve), ascribed to Nicolas-Louis Le Dran (1687–1774), top civil servant in the French foreign office (bureaux des affaires étrangères) under Louis xv. Not unlike Antoine ii Pecquet’s 1757 Esprit des maximes politiques pour servir de suite à l’Esprit des Loix du Président de Montesquieu, these unpublished reflections quote Grotius’s ibp, probably in its 1724 translation by Jean Barbeyrac (and to a lesser extent Montesquieu and Pufendorf) as well as historical literature to argue for the necessary restraint in starting and waging a war. Although Le Dran had not studied law and his citation practices may lack refinement, his engagement with Grotius aligns with the broader mission of early modern jurists a latere principis: to offer moral and value-driven foundations for good governance, rather than to draw on technicalities.

Read the article here: DOI 10.1163/18760759-46010011.

INTERVIEW: Binnenland en buitenland voor de Franse President (De Morgen, 23 DEC 2025)

 Ik sprak met Jorn Lelong (De Morgen) over binnen- en buitenland vanuit het perspectief van het Élysée. Lees het stuk hier.

ARTIKEL: "Jurisdiction and Taxation in the Habsburg Netherlands: the Manuscripts of Goswin Arnould de Wynants, Emperor Charles VI’s Belgian Councillor" (Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor de Uitgave van Oude Wetten en Verordeningen van België LIX (2025), 231-352)

 

(bron afbeelding: KCOWV/CRALO)

Volume LIX van de Handelingen van de Koninklijke Commissie voor de Uitgave van Oude Wetten en Verordeningen van België is verschenen. Uw dienaar verzorgde een langere bijdrage over de manuscripten van Goswin-Arnould de Wynants (1661-1732), vooraanstaand jurist in het begin van de achttiende eeuw.

Abstract:

Goswin-Arnould de Wynants (1661-1732), councillor (judge) in the Council of Brabant, and member of the High Council for the Netherlands in Vienna appointed by emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, was one of the most privileged observers of law and administration in the Spanish and then Austrian Netherlands at the turn of the eighteenth century. Most of his work has never been published, although copies of his manuscripts circulated relatively widely and can be found in various Belgian heritage institutions. Although Wynants is a reference for nineteenth- and early twentieth century legal historians, scholarship in legal history seems to have forgotten both the author and the eighteenth century in the Southern Netherlands. Part of the explanation lies with Wynants’s informal writing style and lack of explicit references, which render his work less suitable for handwritten text recognition and computational legal history. However, a traditional close reading highlights his extensive use of implicit legal reasoning and elements of broader legal culture. Building on the work of Ben Croon (1991) and the institutional study of Klaas Van Gelder (2016) as well as the comprehensive study of public law manuscripts of Martin Schennach for the Holy Roman Empire (2020), two of Wynants’s main works are analysed. First -for the battle over jurisdiction between secular and ecclesiastical power- his Memoirs on the institutions of the Austrian Netherlands. Secondly, the treatise on taxation in Brabant. Although it is still solid to see Wynants as a ‘regalist’ (Croon), defending the secular ruler against ecclesiastical competition and fiscal exemptions, this image has to be complemented. In fine, Wynants primarily defends the judge as a crucial actor in the early modern legal ‘cacophony’ of legal sources and languages (Herzog 2024).

Het volledige volume verschijnt in open access op rechtsreeks.be in de loop van de maand januari. De met HTR gedigitaliseerde Mémoires over de instellingen (waarover ik eerder publiceerde) worden dan ook open access op Zenodo geplaatst. 

Edit 6 I 2026: raadpleegbaar in open access hier (ISBN 9782960272451) en hier: DOI 10.2139/ssrn.6033414.

INTERVIEWS: over de opsluiting van Nicolas Sarkozy (VRT Radio 1 de Ochtend/Het Kwartier)

 Ik sprak met Ruth Joos in de Ochtend (VRT Radio 1) en met Mathieu Lonbois voor Het Kwartier (VRT NWS) over de opsluiting van Nicolas Sarkozy in de gevangenis La Santé.

INTERVIEW: Over de regering-Lecornu II (De Tafel van Gert/Play, 14 OKT 2025)

 Ik was te gast bij De tafel van Gert op Play op 14 oktober. De aflevering kan hier worden herbekeken.

BOEKBESPREKING: Charlotte BELAÏCH & Olivier PÉROU, La Meute. Enquête sur La France Insoumise de Jean-Luc Mélenchon (SamPol XXXII (2025), nr. 8, 63-65)

Ik besprak voor SamPol het ophefmakende boek van onderzoeksjournalisten Charlotte Belaïch en Olivier Pérou over LFI. Lees meer hier.

PERS: "Bloquons tout" (Knack.be, 10 SEP 2025)

 Ik sprak met Elisa Hulstaert (Knack) over de Franse actualiteit. Meer informatie hier.

PERS: de val van Bayrou (De Morgen, VRT Radio 1)

Ik sprak met Dimitri Thijskens (5 september) en Maarten Rabaey (10 september) voor de krant De Morgen.

Op Radio 1 werd ik op zondag 7 september geïnterviewd door Jan Van Delm en op woensdag 10 september door Ruth Joos (beiden 'de Ochtend'). 

BOEKBESPREKING: "De laatste 242: Bespreking van Reszöhazy, E., Roden, D. Horvat, H. en Luyten, D. (2023). De laatste 242: de terechtstelling van collaborateurs na de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Lannoo" (Panopticon XLVI (2025), nr. 3, 288-291)

 

(bron afbeelding: Maklu)

Ik besprak voor Panopticon het boek van Elise Reszöhazy, Dimitri Roden, Stanislas Horvat en Dirk Luyten over De laatste 242: de terechtstelling van collaborateurs na de Tweede Wereldoorlog. 

Meer informatie hier.

PERS: Buiten- en binnenland in de perceptie van president Macron (Knack, 19 JUL 2025)

Ik sprak met Han Renard van Knack over de beeldvorming rond de Franse president, naar aanleiding van een longread van schrijver Emmanuel Carrère voor The Guardian, zie hier.

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’s, DOI 10.4000/14pu5.

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.

See preview on Google Books:

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.

BOEKBESPREKING: "Meelezen over de schouder van de raadpensionaris: Ineke Huysman en Roosje Peeters (eds.), Johan de Witt en het Rampjaar. Een bloemlezing uit zijn correspondentie (Soest 2022), 272 p., ill. ISBN 9789492409720" (Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis CXXXVIII (2025))

(bron afbeelding: AUP)

Ik besprak voor het Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis de recente bundel Johan de Witt en het Rampjaar. Een bloemlezing uit zijn correspondentie, uitgegeven door Ineke Huysman en Roosje Peters.

De bijdrage kan in open access geraadpleegd worden: DOI 10.5117/TvG2025.1.009.DHON.

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.

HANDBOEK: Gestolde macht. Historische en vergelijkende inleiding tot het Publiekrecht (Gent: Owl press, 2025)

(bron afbeelding: blogger)

De nieuwe (derde) editie van mijn handboek Gestolde macht. Historische en vergelijkende inleiding tot het publiekrecht verscheen bij Owl Press (Borgerhoff & Lamberigts).

Meer informatie hier.

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).