EUTopia CoLeCo Legal History: The End(s) of War

Historical context Until the end of the First World War, Slovene territory was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the final years of the war, as imperial structures weakened, political initiatives among South Slavic representatives intensified. Competing visions on new structures emerged regarding the future political organization of the South Slavs. One proposal, articulated in the May Declaration of 1917, advocated the unification of South Slavic nations within the Habsburg framework as an autonomous political unit. In contrast, the Corfu Declaration of 1917 envisaged the creation of State of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes outside the Empire, in association with the Kingdom of Serbia under the Karađorđević dynasty. These programs reflected broader tensions between reformist federalism and the pursuit of full sovereignty beyond imperial structures. In the final phase of the First World War, imperial policy further alienated South Slavic political elites. Emperor Charles I’s promis...

(image: UPF Barcelona's campus of the 'Ciutadella', where the peak event took place) After almost ten months of hybrid, online, and in-person collaboration, the individual and collective blog posts produced by  students from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), CY Cergy Paris Université, the University of Ljubljana, and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are ready to be published over the coming weeks.  We begin with a contribution by Klara Babić , entitled The Role of Telecommunications in Establishing the New Authorities of the Slovene National Government at the End of the First World War and the Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Her contribution will be followed by those of her fellow students and colleagues across the EUTopia network. The Ljubljana students worked under a common thematic umbrella in 2025-2026 ( From a state of war to a state of peace  via (new) communication technologies and media: the establishing of authorities, institutions, laws and the r...

  Before we begin, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are the UPF team participating in this year’s EUtopia Project: Manel Bautista, Aurora Peggion, Greta Pescosolido, Isabelle Hannam, Eduardo Córdoba, Lauren Ferrie, Annika Cross, Ellie Cullen and Guillem Marcer. This post is dedicated to a global assessment of our Peak Event presentations:  “From Internment to Reparation: The French State and Spanish Exiles” by Aurora Peggion, Manel Bautista and Greta Pescosolido.  “The Repression of Republicans During and After the Spanish Civil War” by Lauren Ferrie, Annika Cross and Guillem Marcer ‘’The Foundations of New Europe after WWII: The Case of the European Coal and Steel Community’’ by Isabelle Hannam, Ellie Cullen, Matilde Gremmo and Eduardo Córdoba Why did you join? Our participation in the EUtopia Project began with an invitation from our professor, who introduced us to the initiative at the beginning of the academic year. The idea of joining a transnational learning...

Our Peak Event report begins a good few days before the actual Peak Event. In fact, it begins on a relatively cloudy, cold and (thankfully) rainless Tuesday morning in front of our Faculty in Ljubljana, where we, each armed with a suitcase and a backpack, filed onto a shuttle van which was to take us to Trieste airport. And thus, at seven in the morning, our great 10-hour odyssey to Barcelona officially began. We made it to our destination with minimal difficulties, which - for the stretch of Slovenian highway leading us there, which is notorious for traffic jams - was an incredible blessing. We got there so early, in fact, that the check-in counters weren’t even open yet, so we used up our wait-time to eat pre-packed sandwiches and chug from our water bottles before we had to go through security. Luckily, Trieste airport is quite small, so once our bags were tagged and taken away we got through the metal detectors and to our gate in no time. We then collectively ...

Donderdag 26/02/2026 Donderdagochtend, de dag waar we al zo lang naar uitkeken, was eindelijk aangebroken. Vol spanning namen we onze koffer in de hand en stapten we de voordeur uit. Niet goed wetende wat we konden verwachten van de komende vier dagen, maar met een rotsvaste overtuiging dat het hoe dan ook de ervaring en de kans van ons leven zou worden. Het voelde een beetje aan als een sprong in het diepe en vele vragen drongen zich op. Hoe zal morgen de presentatie gaan? Ga ik interessante mensen ontmoeten uit verschillende Europese landen? Gaan de andere Belgische meisjes, die ik nog nooit in levende lijven ontmoet heb, aangenaam zijn? Het antwoord op die laatste vraag liet echter niet lang op zich wachten. Vanaf het eerste moment dat we elkaar zagen op de luchthaven, stond het al in de sterren geschreven... dit worden vier fantastische dagen. We besloten instinctief en collectief om de onwennige ontmoetingsfase over te slaan en het voelde meteen alsof we al jaren goede vriendinnen...