woman with camera

Kickoff seminar: A legal history of the global commons

Date: Time: 09:00 Location: Faculty Club Tilburg

Our research project seeks to put together the story of how modern international law reached across the so-called “global commons”, or areas beyond sovereign territorial jurisdiction. In practice, this means places like the high seas, the deep seabed, Antarctica and the outer space.

WELCOME TO THE GLOBAL COMMONS!

We bring together scholars interested in the long-term legal history of these common planetary spaces to collectively map out their overall story. The project is based on research in the history of international law, the law of the sea, and in Antarctic law, as told in law books as well as in long-forgotten records buried in public and institutional archives. We evaluate our findings in the light of the old, often dark legacies of conquest, colonisation and appropriation from the law of nations that may not be as far in the past as one might think. (Indeed, we suspect they may not be in the past at all.)

  • 9:00 – 10:00 Doors open & coffee served while waiting for the programme to start
  • 10:00 – 10:05 Opening words
  • 10:05 – 11:30 First panel (Chair: Mónica García-Salmones Rovira, Maastricht University)
    ➢ Emily Sipiorski(Tilburg University): The Seabed and its Regulation: the bal-
    ance of language in economic exploitation
    ➢ Ville Kari (Tilburg University): International Geophysical Year 1957 and the
    Scramble for the Global Commons
    ➢ Markus Gunneflo (Lund University): TWAIL for outer space: Space Law ne-
    gotiations at the UN 1958-63
    ➢ Arnulf Becker Lorca (European University Institute): Enclosing Commons
  • 11:30 – 11:45 Break
  • 11:45 – 13:10 Second session / panel (Chair: tbc)
    ➢ Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki): International organisations and the
    global commons
    ➢ Outi Penttilä (University of Helsinki): On the legal history of planetary nature
    conservation
    ➢ Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki): The Law of International Soci-
    ety, a Road Not Taken
  • 13:10 – 13:15 Closing of the public part
  • 13:15 – 14:30 Lunch for everyone.

Registration

Due to the limited number of places at the Faculty club, registration to the event is mandatory. Registration is free of charge and the deadline is Friday 26 April 2024. Register online here:

Project contact details