CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference: Contested Seas. War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the Sea, DEADLINE 15 MAY 2026

CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference: Contested Seas. War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the Sea, DEADLINE 15 MAY 2026

International Conference:

Contested Seas: War, Commerce, and the Making of the Law of the Sea (c. 1400–1800)

19-20 November 2026, Ostend, Belgium

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Campus Ostend / Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)

Conveners:

Stefano Cattelan & Frederik Dhondt
(Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Faculty of Law and Criminology, Research Group CORE)

Key Questions

The conference invites contributions addressing one or more of the following questions:

• What kind of legal regime was the early modern law of the sea?
  How can it be understood as a historically contingent and contested normative order rather than a coherent or stabilised body of rules?
• How did warfare shape the law of the sea?
  In what ways did recurring conflicts over maritime jurisdiction, belligerent rights, neutrality, blockade, contraband, and prize-taking contribute to the production and transformation of legal norms at sea?
• How was the law of the sea articulated, applied, and contested in daily practice?
  What roles did courts, diplomatic channels, port authorities, consular institutions, and commercial actors play in the everyday functioning of this legal regime?
• How did neutrality operate as a formative force within the law of the sea?
  How were legal boundaries between peace and war at sea shaped by disputes and agreements involving neutral navigation?
• How did individuals and non-state actors exercise legal agency at sea?
  The mobilisation of multiple normative orders —public, commercial, and customary by merchants, shipmasters, insurers, chartered companies, or private entrepreneurs — to pursue commercial, political, or strategic objectives is central here.
• How did different connected spaces and regions shape a distinct legal practice?
  How did practices take shape across and between different maritime regions and circuits, including interactions between European and extra-European legal orders?
• What are the longer-term implications of early modern practices of the law of the sea?
  How did early modern solutions and conflicts inform later codification efforts and continue to resonate in contemporary debates on ocean governance?

Thematic Areas (Indicative)

The following thematic areas, which constitute the thematic translation of the questions highlighted above, articulate different dimensions of the early modern law of the sea as a contested legal regime produced through conflict, commerce, and legal practice. They are intended to be read as analytically connected rather than as parallel or autonomous agendas. They are indicative rather than exhaustive.

1. The sea as a legal and spatial order

Maritime jurisdiction; territorial waters; ports, straits, and littoral zones; sovereignty and access; legal pluralism at sea; competing claims to control, passage, and enforcement.

2. War, commerce, and neutrality in the law of the sea

Naval warfare and economic conflict; blockade, contraband, and continuous voyage; prize-taking and adjudication; neutrality as legal status, diplomatic strategy, and practical resource; coercion, enforcement, and asymmetries between belligerents and neutrals.

3. Institutions and practices producing the law of the sea

Courts (including admiralty and prize courts); diplomatic correspondence; consular jurisdictions; port authorities and regulatory regimes; chartered companies; litigation, arbitration, and everyday legal practice. Contributions grounded in specific sources or sites of norm production are particularly welcome.

4. Agency and normative pluralism within the law of the sea

The role of individuals and non-state actors —such as merchants, shipmasters, insurers, private entrepreneurs, and colonial intermediaries— in mobilising a plurality of normative orders, including the law of nations, domestic legislation, commercial and maritime law, urban statutes, customary norms, and private contracts.

5. The law of the sea across regions, empires, and legal encounters

Comparative and transregional perspectives; interactions between European and extra-European legal orders; cross-cultural legal encounters; circulation, translation, and contestation of norms governing maritime space in different oceanic worlds.

6. From early modern practice to modern/contemporary ocean governance

Long-term continuities and ruptures in the law of the sea; armed neutrality and collective enforcement; early modern legacies in later codification efforts and contemporary debates on ocean governance.

Disciplinary Scope: The conference welcomes contributions from legal history, the history of international law, maritime and naval history, diplomatic and political history, economic history, and international law scholarship with a historical or theoretical orientation. Interdisciplinary, critical, and transregional approaches are particularly encouraged. Early-career researchers are warmly invited to submit proposals.

Format: The conference is conceived as a focused, discussion-oriented event. Draft papers will be circulated in advance to facilitate in-depth exchange. Presentations will be kept at 20 minutes for each speaker in order to prioritise collective discussion and comparative discussion.

Submission Guidelines: please submit an abstract of no more than 350 words and a short biographical note of up to 150 words to: stefano.cattelan@vub.be.
Submission deadline: 15 May 2026
Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2026
Draft papers (for pre-circulation among participants): 20 October 2026

Publication: Following the conference, selected contributions will be submitted to a special issue in an international peer-reviewed journal (preferably open access).

For more details, refer here