International Conference
Contested Seas. War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the
Sea
(c. 1400–1800)
Ostend: VUB aan
Zee/VLIZ, 19–20 November 2026
Convenors: Stefano
Cattelan (Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Brussels School of Governance), Frederik
Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
DAY
1 – Thursday, 19 November 2026
Venue: VLIZ
Jacobsenstraat 1, 8400 Ostend
|
Time |
Session |
|
09:00–09:30 |
Welcome and coffee |
|
09:30–11:00 |
Session 1 – Plenary |
|
11:00–11:25 |
Coffee break |
|
11:25–12:55 |
Sessions 2 & 3 –
Parallel |
|
12:55–13:45 |
Lunch in situ |
|
13:45–15:15 |
Sessions 4 & 5 –
Parallel |
|
15:15–15:40 |
Coffee break |
|
15:40–16:50 |
Session 6 – Focused
session |
|
16:50–17:15 |
Coffee / transition
break |
|
17:15–18:45 |
Public keynote +
reception |
|
19:30 |
Dinner, Ostend centre |
09:00–09:30 Welcome and coffee
Stefano Cattelan
(Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Brussels School of Governance), Frederik Dhondt
(Vrije Universiteit Brussel) & Torsten Feys (Flanders Marine Institute,
VLIZ)
09:30–11:00 Session 1 – Plenary
Foundations
of Maritime Order: Territory, Freedom, and Authority at Sea
1.
Florian
Reverchon – Université Toulouse Capitole
De nuptiis
Philologiæ et Neptunii. Sovereignty over Seas and the lex Deprecatio (D. 14, 2,
9) in the Modern Era
2.
Henry
Jones – Durham University
Birth of the
Territorial Sea? Re-reading the Anglo-Dutch Wars
3.
Matthew
Cleary – Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
Printing the
Freedom of the Seas: A Census of the 1618 Mare Liberum and the Material
Authority of Grotius’ Maritime Law
11:25–12:55 Session 2 – Parallel A
War,
Neutrality, and Seapower
4.
Ubaldo
Morozzi – Independent Researcher
1653: Tuscan
Neutrality and the Battle of Livorno
5.
Stefano
Cattelan – Vrije Universiteit Brussel / Brussels School of
Governance
Guardians of the
Gulf: Venetian Maritime Neutrality and the Law of the Sea, ca. 1688–1714
6.
Shoya
Fugetsu – University of Tokyo
The Foundation of
the British Seapower State: Maritime Interests in Political Society, 1688–1783
11:25–12:55 Session 3 – Parallel B
Prize,
Capture, and Maritime Violence
7.
Aybüke Naz Durmuş Venturini – Hacettepe University
Prize, Property,
and Payment: Commercial Law after Maritime Capture, c. 1650–1800
8.
Julia
Weiyao Han – The University of Hong Kong
The Undivided Sea:
Prize Courts, Insurance, and the Making of Maritime Law’s Division, c.
1650–1875
9.
Niels
Fieremans – Ghent University / FWO
Heroes or Zeros?
Shifting Perspectives on Maritime Plunder in the Renaissance Low Countries
13:45–15:15 Session 4 – Parallel A
Mediterranean
Sovereignty, Ports, and Jurisdictional Practice
10. Scheyma Djaziri – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / IREDIES
Neither “Mare
Liberum” nor “Mare Clausum”: Towards Mare Non Liberum in the Mediterranean
11. Mohamed Sobhy Hassan Ali Mohamed –
Zagazig University
Legal Pluralism
and Maritime Practice in Ottoman Egypt, c. 1500–1800
12. Soumia Ezzarktouni – Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech
Neutralité,
commerce et juridictions portuaires marocaines: pratiques normatives et
fabrique contestée du droit de la mer au XVIIIe siècle
13:45–15:15 Session 5 – Parallel B
Asian
Seas, Treaties, and Maritime Sovereignty
13. Shinsaku Kato – Shiga
University
Treaties and the
Making of the Maritime Order in the Arabian Sea during the Eighteenth Century
14. Eduardo Cavalcanti de
Mello Filho – University College London
The Nationality of
Ships before “Nationality”: From the Ming Dynasty’s Hai jin to the Early Modern
Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaties
15. Akrita Kaur & Arundathi M.S. –
World Maritime University, Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute & Panjab
University / Gujarat National Law University
Whose Mare
Liberum? Eighteenth-Century European Jurists and Asian Maritime Sovereignty
15:40–16:50 Session 6 – Focused session
Maritime
Neutrality and Trade in the Austrian Netherlands
16. Marion A. Huibrechts – KU
Leuven
Maritime
neutrality, economic policy, and government centralization in the Austrian
Netherlands (1715–1784). The port city of Ostend as a hub for international
trade
17. Théophile Goffin –
Université libre de Bruxelles
Trade and Maritime
Neutrality: The Austrian Netherlands’ Projects for Trade with Russia
(1781–1785)
17:15–18:45 Public keynote + reception
Prof. dr. Indravati Hiltl-Félicité –
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Beyond Mare Liberum: Empires and the Contest for Maritime Order
DAY
2 – Friday, 20 November 2026
Venue: VUB aan Zee
Graaf De Smet de Naeyerlaan 4, 8400 Ostend
|
Time |
Session |
|
09:00–09:20 |
Welcome and coffee |
|
09:20–09:30 |
Welcoming |
|
09:30–10:45 |
Keynote 2 |
|
10:45–11:10 |
Coffee break |
|
11:10–12:40 |
Session 7 – Plenary |
|
12:40–13:35 |
Lunch in situ |
|
13:35–15:05 |
Session 8 – Plenary |
|
15:05–15:30 |
Coffee break |
|
15:30–17:00 |
Sessions 9 & 10 –
Parallel |
|
17:00–17:30 |
Concluding words and
outlook |
09:20–09:30 Welcoming
John Crombez –
Mayor of the City of Ostend (TBC)
09:30–10:45 Keynote 2
Prof. dr. Surabhi Ranganathan –
University of Cambridge, Lauterpacht Centre for International Law
Seeking Other Oceans – Chokepoints Past and Present
11:10–12:40 Session 7 – Plenary
Maritime
Jurisdiction and Legal Order at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century
18. Luisella Zocca – “Giorgio
Zanotto” Law Library, University of Verona
The Venetian Prize
Commission and the Making of Habsburg Maritime Jurisdiction in the Adriatic
(1798–1803)
19. Raphaël Cahen – Justus Liebig
University Giessen / Vrije Universiteit Brussel
A Forgotten Expert
of Maritime Law: Pierre Boulouvard (1752–1823)
20. Emmanuel Leroux –
Université Paris Panthéon-Assas / Institut d’Histoire du Droit Jean Gaudemet
To Establish
Freedom of Navigation on European Rivers at the Congress of Vienna (Dec.
1814–June 1815): Peace, Commercial Interests and Liberal Ideas
13:35–15:05 Session 8 – Plenary
Maritime
Space, Freedom, and the Transformation of Legal Order
21. Filippo Ruschi – University of
Florence
Sailing the Mare
tenebrosum: the Ocean and the Crisis of the Respublica Christiana
22. Matilde Rocca – SOAS University
of London
Upon Free Seas:
Maritime Liberty and the Individual in the Age of Abolition
23. Daniele Mandrioli – Università degli Studi di Milano
Does “Artificial
Land” Dominate the Sea? Past and Recent Trends of a Long-Standing Debate
15:30–17:00 Session 9 – Parallel A
Shipboard
Order, Liability, and Maritime Jurisdiction
24. Matilda Sidel – Yale University
Masters between
Land and Sea: Regulating Shipboard Order in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish
Atlantic
25. Ionut Iordache – “Alexandru Ioan
Cuza” Police Academy, Bucharest
The Evolution of
Liability in Maritime Transport: From Early Commercial Practices to Modern
Legal Concepts
26. Chiara Pavesi – University of
Liverpool
State’s
Jurisdiction over Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel on Merchant
Vessels
15:30–17:00 Session 10 – Parallel B
Resources
and the Regulation of Ocean Space
27. Samdup Dolma – Tibet Policy
Institute
Extracting the
Sea: Maritime Resource Economies and the Legal Construction of Exploitable
Ocean Space, 16th–18th Centuries
28. Bui Tai Kien – Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam
From Resource
Exploitation and Security to Environment: UNCLOS’s Uneven Regulatory Design
29. Lindsay De Jong –
Erasmus University Rotterdam
The Depth of
Colonial Roots: Attempting to Decolonise the Deep Seabed
