EUTOPIA is the future! Within the community, you will collaborate across universities in Europe and respective student groups on common themes through the use of active learning methods. You will work individually and collectively on a case study connected to the transversal theme of minority rights. The theme will be studied from the perspective of legal history (i.e. the role of law in the treatment of minorities, and the influence of minorities on how we think in legal categories).
Through the activities, we aim to enhance the potential for collaborative education through a blended teaching approach. We conduct teaching in English, as well as in the different languages of the participating institutions, where it is relevant or necessary to highlight the specific cultural component of the cases treated. Students will work across the campuses and use the architectural environment of their campuses and cities to convey their message. A case sometimes cannot be understood without reference to the past, but your individual and concrete experiences serve as our gateway to discussing and discovery.
Key learning outcomes: A thorough understanding of sources of law, the mobilisation of legal arguments in political and societal debates, critical analysis of and reflection on primary sources, engagement in debate with lecturers and fellow students.
The peak event is a meeting where all institutions physically come together, after intense connected online cooperation on Teams. This will take place alongside an online exhibition of the elaborated material in a visually appealing way (embedded historical and legal documents, video clips, podcasts)
Meetings
Meetings with the lecturer and students of the same institution on a regular basis
Online meetings with the students across the various institutions (both formally and informally), allow you to keep in touch, explore each others’ cases and share experiences on the new learning methods. One example of this is our EUTOPIA Coffee Corner.
Expertise
Expert interviews to provide substantive input for the project.
Events
A culminating event where all institutions come together, meet and exchange.
An online exhibition of the elaborated material in a visually appealing way (embedded historical and legal documents, video clips, podcasts)
Learning Community Members
Lead: Frederik Dhondt (VUB), Email: Frederik.Dhondt@vub.be
Frederik Dhondt studied law (Ghent, 2007), history (Ghent/Erasmus Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2008) and International Relations (Sciences Po Paris, 2009). He obtained his PhD in Law in 2013 (Ghent). He has been a PhD-Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders, a faculty postdoctoral assistant and a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at Ghent University. From 2015 on, he teaches political history, comparative constitutional history and international legal history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. From 2015 to 2020, he was a guest lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp. The EUTOPIA project is an opportunity to internationalise the current master's course Legal History, which is co-taught with dr. Raphaël Cahen (VUB, currently Fellow in Residence at the IAS in Orléans). Students explore the extensive databases of published 18th and 19th-century legal sources and combine them with recent literature to present and write on a legal aspect of past international relations or constitutions. This interactive mode of teaching in Dutch, French and English has allowed us to invite external colleagues and students in the past academic years. We look forward to welcoming out EUTopia partners and their students
a Raphaël Cahen is a Post-doctoral Fellow and a visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He has studied law, history and political sciences in Aix-en-Provence, Perugia and Munich and holds a Joint PhD in Law and political sciences from Aix-Marseille University and the LMU Munich. He is doing research on intellectual history, as well as the history of institutions and international law. He is teaching the master course Rechtsgeschiedenis (Lead by Frederik Dhondt) at the VUB and the learning Unit Legal History (Lead by Frederik Dhondt) within the alliance Eutopia.
His major publications include Friedrich Gentz (1764-1832): Penseur post-Lumières et acteur du nouvel ordre européen (Berlin, Boston 2017) and « Hauterive et l’école des diplomates (1800-1830) », Clio@Themis. Revue électronique d’histoire du droit, t. 18 [Dossier : Histoire du droit international], 2020.
a Caroula Argyriadis-Kervegan is a professor of Legal History at the CY Cergy Paris University. She is a former research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of History of Law and a professor at the universities of Rouen and Le Havre. Her research focuses on the comparative history of legal thought, conservatism, comparative history of law (France, Germany, Greece, 18th–20thc.), and the history of the modern nation-state. Her courses are about the comparative history of public law and history of international law, comparative history of family law, and history of human rights. She is co-responsible for the student exchanges of the law faculty. She is the author of numerous publications in German, French, English, Italian, and Greek scientific journals.
a Alfons Aragoneses is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Affiliate Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory. He got his PhD in 2006 at the Universitat de Girona with a thesis on the History of Comparative Law in France. He has published two books on the topic in German (2006) and Spanish (2009). Since then he has published articles and chapters of books on the history of private law in France and Spain and on the history of Francoist law. He has recently published works on memory laws and memory politics. He teaches Legal History from a Global Perspective at UPF and has also taught in Italy, France and Brazil. He recently co-directed a postgraduate course on Transitional Justice and Public policies of remembrance at the Universitat de les Illes Balears.
Partner: Jane Bryan (UoW), Email: j.m.bryan@warwick.ac.uk
a Dr Jane Bryan is a Reader in Law at the University of Warwick and a Foundation Fellow of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy. Jane’s research and teaching interests include medical law, pedagogy, and the student's voice. Jane teaches modules on ‘Property Law’ ‘Trusts Law’ and ‘Medical Law’ and was a recipient of a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence commendation and one of the Finalists in the Oxford University Press Law Teacher of the Year Award 2019. Jane has a keen interest in supporting undergraduate research institutionally and beyond, being the Warwick Student Research Staff Network Lead and a member of the organising committee of the World Conference of Undergraduate Research.
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Frederik Dhondt studied law (Ghent, 2007), history (Ghent/Erasmus Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2008) and International Relations (Sciences Po Paris, 2009). He obtained his PhD in Law in 2013 (Ghent). He has been a PhD-Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders, a faculty postdoctoral assistant and a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at Ghent University. From 2015 on, he teaches political history, comparative constitutional history and international legal history at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. From 2015 to 2020, he was a guest lecturer at the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp. The EUTOPIA project is an opportunity to internationalise the current master's course Legal History, which is co-taught with dr. Raphaël Cahen (VUB, currently Fellow in Residence at the IAS in Orléans). Students explore the extensive databases of published 18th and 19th-century legal sources and combine them with recent literature to present and write on a legal aspect of past international relations or constitutions. This interactive mode of teaching in Dutch, French and English has allowed us to invite external colleagues and students in the past academic years. We look forward to welcoming out EUTopia partners and their students
