Lecture
Van Vollenhoven and Grotius: Soulmates of Empire
- Date
- Thursday 14 October 2021
- Time
- Address
-
Kamerlingh Onnes Building
Steenschuur 25
2311 ES Leiden - Room
- B 0.13 and on Zoom
Martine van Ittersum is a Senior Lecturer of History, Archieves, and Information Studies at Dundee University. Her research specializes in Dutch overseas expansion in the early modern period. Her monograph Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies, 1595-1615 reconstructs the immediate historical context of the rights and contract theories of the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). She shows that Mare Liberum/The Free Sea (1609) was written in response to a set of practical problems faced by the Dutch East India Company. She is now working on a book on the transmission and dispersal of Grotius’ working papers.
This event is part of an ongoing lecture series organized by the Van Vollenhoven Institute, entitled “Reconsidering the Socio-Legal Gaze.” The lecture series aims to spark critical debates about the visions of justice and positions of power inform Law and Society scholarship at Leiden and beyond. The first semester’s series “Dutch Colonial Foundations” will reflect on the birth of socio-legal scholarship in the context of Dutch colonial administration.
The second semester focuses on “Future Horizons” of socio-legal scholarship in the context of three key values that drive contemporary scholarship: decolonization, diversity, and development. The year-long lecture series is being organized by the Van Vollenhoven Institute Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the first of its kind at Leiden Law School.
The series is open to the public. Attendees may join either virtually or in person.