2026 ESIL Annual Conference International Law and Conflict: An Enduring Tension?
Pre-Conference
Workshop:
Conflict,
Crisis and Continuity – Historical Perspectives
Thursday 3rd
September 2026, 09:00 to 12:00
Blvr. Louis
Pasteur, 26, Teatinos-Universidad, 29010 Málaga
Contemporary debates frequently
describe international law as being in crisis, particularly in light of
escalating global conflicts and challenges to normative authority. This year’s
pre-conference workshop consisted of two panels convened to examine the
resilience of international law amid shifting political conditions during
periods of historical upheaval.
The first panel explores how
territorial conflicts, imperial collapse, and the emergence of nation-states
shaped the development of international law in the “semi-periphery” in the
aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles. Together, they highlight how post-imperial
uncertainty, territorial contestation, and geopolitical realignment not only
challenged classical international law in Central and Eastern Europe but also
led to the emergence of country-specific or regional approaches toward
international law. The second panel examines the relationship between warfare
and the evolution of international law from the early modern period to the
twentieth century. Through studies of maritime neutrality during the recurrent
European wars of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and the
shifting legal treatment of pillage in the aftermath of the Boxer Intervention
of 1900, the papers demonstrate how “conflict” often served as a catalyst for
adaptation and reinterpretation of classical international legal doctrines.
Programme
|
09:00 – 09:15 |
Introduction and words of welcome (Dr Florenz Volkaert) |
|
09:15 – 10:10 |
Panel 1: Laws of War or Law on War? History of
International Law in Asymmetric Conflicts |
|
|
Dr Stefano Cattelan (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Brussels
School of Governance): Neutrality as Crisis Management: Small Powers and
the Law of the Sea in Recurrent European Wars (c. 1688–1714) Professor Danny Orbach (The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem) & Dr Ziv Bohrer (Bar-Ilan University): A Pendulum of Legal
Bandwagoning: The International Law of War on Pillage During and Following
the Boxer War |
|
|
Moderator: Dr Sze Hong Lam, National University of
Singapore |
|
10:10-10:30 |
Break |
|
10:30-11:50 |
Panel 2: The Paris Peace Conference as a Moment of
Crisis? Debates on International Law from a Regional Perspective |
|
|
Dr Artur Simonyan (University of Regensburg): Between
Empires and After Empire: Armenia in the History of International Law |
|
|
Ágoston Frank (University of Vienna): Conflict and
Crisis as the Origin and Driving Force of Hungarian International Law Between
the Two World Wars Peter Odrich (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and
Legal Theory, Frankfurt/College of Europe): A Conflictual Affair:
Internationalising Upper Silesia |
|
|
Moderator:
Dr Anastasia Hammerschmied, Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Münster |
|
11:50:12:00 |
Concluding Remarks (Dr Florenz Volkaert) |
Conveners
Mónica García-Salmones Rovira – Anastasia Hammerschmied –
Florenz Volkaert – Sze Hong Lam
