Invited lecture: Semi-Colonial Polities, Early Euro-Lawyers, and EU Law as Constitutional Law
The i-Hilt lectures (TLS-PLG) welcome Dr Michel Erpelding (University of Luxembourg), who will talk about “Semi-Colonial Polities, Early Euro-Lawyers, and EU Law as Constitutional Law”. Dr Chiara Raucea (Tilburg University) will offer her perspective on the topic from her EU law expertise, sparking thus a riveting and taught-provoking discussion that builds a bridge from the past to present-day EU law and colonial legacies. There will ample time for Q&A. The moderator will be Dr. Zülâl Muslu (Tilburg University).
Abstract
This presentation will explore how legal practices typical of semi-colonial contexts, notably the use of internationally composed ‘mixed courts’ to guarantee the individual rights of Westerners, contributed to the origins of European integration law.
It will first introduce readers to the origins and characteristics of these mixed courts, which operated between the middle of the 19th and the middle of the 20th centuries, especially highlighting the cases of the Mixed Courts of Egypt and the Mixed Court of Tangier.
It will then describe the personal continuities that existed between these courts and post-World War II European law, both within the European Communities and the Council of Europe.
Finally, to further illustrate this point, the chapter will zoom in on one case before the Mixed Court of Tangier that not only raised the question of treaty law as constitutional law, but also elicited a cautious, yet not entirely negative, assessment by Nicola Catalano, who would shortly afterwards become one of the most influential early ‘Euro-lawyers’.
Date and time
February 8, 16:00 - 17:30 hrs.
Location
CUBE Z 219