A walk through the historiography of international law on the European continent since the Age of Enlightenment
- Date
- 31 May 2022
- Time
- 15:30 -17:00
- Location
- Roeterseilandcampus - building A
- Room
- A3.01
Abstract
The art and craft of writing history is inherently linked with international law scholarship. Finding precedents and doctrinal authority or reading the political compromises underpinning institutions are typical purposes. Lawyers, academics and political actors have all been receptive to a historical narrative. The structure and arguments used in international law are closely linked with Western legal culture and the reception of Roman law. This setting is at the same time broader and more restrictive than that of professional academic historians, who developed theoretical standards to distinguish their thought-through production [historia rerum gestarum] from the rendering of brute facts [res gestae] or from a purely literary product. I will start with German and French eighteenth-century visions of the law of nations, before passing to the nineteenth-century passion for history, to move from the “men” of 1873 and 20th century evolutions to the recent boom in scholarship, which not only continues past traditions, but also reflects broader transformations in social sciences and humanities. Conversely, we witness a contemporary “turn to law” in intellectual, political, cultural and social history, which leads to a stimulating process of cross-fertilization.
Speaker
Frederik Dhondt is associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Frederik obtained the degrees of Master of Laws (Ghent, 2002-2007, Magna Cum Laude, Specialty Public law and International Law), Master of Arts in History (Ghent, 2004-2008, Erasmus Paris IV-Sorbonne, Summa Cum Laude) and Research Master in International Relations (Sciences Po Paris, Ecole doctorale, 2008-2009, Magna Cum Laude). His research focuses on the history of international law, public law and politics in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Discussant
Elisabetta Fiocchi Malaspina is Assistant Professor of Legal History at the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Research colloquium organised by the Paul Scholten Centre and the Amsterdam Center for International Law.
