EUTOPIA CONNECTED LEARNING COMMUNITY LEGAL HISTORY 25-26 OPENING LECTURE: Prof. dr. Miloš VEC (Universität Wien), "After 1919 and after 1945: How two World Wars shaped German Thinking on International Law" (ONLINE, 14 NOV 2025, 15:00 Brussels Time)

The EUTopia Connected Learning Community Legal History is delighted to welcome Prof. dr. Miloš Vec (Universität Wien) for its annual opening lecture on Friday 14 November 2025.

Within the framework of this year's theme The End of War, Prof. Vec will address the following topic:

After 1919 and after 1945: How two World Wars shaped German Thinking on International Law

On the Speaker

Prof. Vec is currently at the Universität zu Köln as the Second Hans Kelsen Visiting Professor. Prior to being appointed at the Universität Wien in 2012, he taught and carried out research in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bonn, Konstanz, Tübingen, Lyon II, Vilnius and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a renowned legal historian.

His publications include the monographs Zeremonialwissenschaft im Fürstenstaat. Studien zur juristischen und politischen Theorie absolutistischer Herrschaftsrepräsentation (Klostermann, 1998), Recht und Normierung in der Industriellen Revolution. Neue Strukturen der Normsetzung im Völkerrecht, staatlicher Gesetzgebung und gesellfschaftlicher Selbstnormierung (Klostermann, 2006) and -recently- Wolfgang Preiser (1903-1997) und sein "Institut für Geschichte des Völkerrechts" an der Universität Frankfurt Denkräume und Sozialwelten eines Völkerrechtshistorikers im 20. Jahrhundert (Nomos, 2025). He obtained the prestigious Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society in 1997, the Academy Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in 2008 and has been a senior Global Hauser Fellow at New York University in 2017. Between 2016 and 2020, he wass a permanent fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna.

Prof. Vec is co-editor of Constructing International Law – The Birth of a Discipline (with Luigi Nuzzo, Klostermann, 2012), Paradoxes of Peace in Nineteenth Century Europe (with Thomas Hippler, Oxford, 2015), The Transformation of Foreign Policy (with Andreas Fahrmeir and Gunther Hellmann, Oxford, 2015), Western International Law, 1776-1870 (vol. VII of The Cambridge History of International Law, ed. Randall Lesaffer; with Paulina Starski, Cambridge, forthcoming) and The Congress of Vienna and the Transformation of International Law (with Matthias Schmoeckel, Brill, forthcoming). Prof. Vec equally is a member of the editorial board of the book series Studien zur Geschichte des Völkerrechts (Nomos) as well as of the Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international (Brill).

Prof. Vec contributes regularily to the leading German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, since 1989.

Practicalities

This lecture (with Q&A) takes place on Friday 14 November 2025 at 15:00 (Brussels/Paris Time), on Microsoft Teams.

Target audience are lecturers/professors, researchers and students of the associated institutions (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Prof. Frederik Dhondt; CY Cergy Paris Université - Prof. Caroula Argyriadis-Kervégan; University of Warwick, dr. Rosie Doyle; Univerza v Ljubljani, prof. dr. Katja Škrubej; Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Prof. dr. Alfons Aragoneses). Yet, the meeting is also open to external particpants.

Interested listeners or auditors can contact Frederik dot Dhondt at vub dot be for registration.