Constructing Europe after Utrecht (1713-1740) Imag(in)ing Europe, Utrecht University/UCL/Trier, 14 Sep 2016 Seminar Session I Prof. Dr. F. Dhondt Vrije Universiteit Brussel Ghent University-Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) IMAGE AND IMAGINATION L Union des princes par la paix générale 1
9/15/2016 Louis XV donnant la paix à l Europe Defining Europe The Peace of Utrecht Europe after Utrecht CONSTRUCTING EUROPE, 1713-1740 Defining Europe Europe as an integrated whole Europe as an arena Europe as a metaphor Law and normativity Elite integration, Society of Princes 2
The Peace of Utrecht Façade >< bilateral Fr-GB agreement Core: balance of power Anti-French (1701) Anti-Austrian (1710) Two-way split of the Spanish inheritance (1659-1715) Bourbon Habsburg Redefinition of the general interest Continuous negotiations Power struggle Factual complexity Missing layer: normative essentials of the law Interpretation < practice, as well as production Sovereignty in a horizontal perspective Law of nations, Ius inter gentes Between two extremes (Koskenniemi, CLS) history of lawyers (Halpérin) history of ideas (Tuck) Application: sociology (Bourdieu, Arendt) Continuous conversation rules of agreement and disagreement Interaction between legal orders 3
Core: renunciations Private law Public law Law of nations Political motivations dressed in legal terms War = modification of the 1713 compromise Fr-GB interest and general interest Hierarchy Parliament of Paris, 15 March 1713 Ny le Prince peut aliéner l Estat ni l Estat ne peut perdre son Prince Une telle renonciation étoit absolument opposée aux lois fondamentales de l Estat 4
Rhetorical strategies and legal priorities Aprés tant de batailles gagnées et perdues, aprés tant de saccagemens de pilleries et de miseres, les puissances de l Europe lassées et fatiguées de tant de maux font un reglement, où le Roy d Espagne comme les autres, renonce formellement a toutes ses pretentions sur le Royaume de France, et cependant non-obstant qu il ne jouit de la couronne d Espagne, de quelque maniere qu on considere la chose qu en vertu de ce bien public qui ne permette pas que l Empereur ni le Roi de France, qui sont incontestablement, l un ou l autre, legitimes pretendants à ce royaume, l aient. James Craggs to Guillaume Dubois, Whitehall, 26 November 1718 OS, NA, SP, 78, (162, f. 394r ) Common good Rhetorical strategies and legal priorities les traittez religieusement observez [ ] l amitié [ ] la bonne foi et les bons offices reciproques (James Craggs to Guillaume Dubois, Whitehall, 26 November 1718 NS, NA, SP, 78, 162) 5
Contravenors v. Mediators Tranquillity continuity (Fr/GB) Droit public de l'europe (Fr) Balance of Power (GB) Law and its (scholarly) language: Latin imperial law Shared codes and practices >< Spanish and Austrian transgressions Friedrich Karl von Schönborn (1674-1746) Collective management? Guarantors Contracting Parties Allies Congress of Cambrai (1722-1725) Failure? Non-event? >< revealing for negotiating practices >< construction of a common discourse Lorenzo Verzuso Marquese Beretti Landi (1654-1725) Vertical and horizontal discourse A. Feudal law Spain: vassalagium Emperor: prodominium ligus Parma: sovereignty Reichshofrat B. Treaty law Spain Emperor: partition Spain Emperor: investiture of Siena TuscanyEmperor: duchy of Massa Savoye-Sardaigne: préséance and sovereignty Mediators: synthesis and guidance 6
les Traittés qui font maintenant Loy dans l Europe (Morville to Rottembourg and Saint-Contest, Versailles, 4 February 1724, NA, SP, 78, 173, f. 167r ) Reasoning by analogy Art. V, Traité de Londres (2 August 1718) CONCLUSION 7
Europe as an arena Common legal culture Roman law, canon law, law of nature Common training, common discursive space Common diplomatic culture and sociability Principles underpinned by troops and ships = Balance of Power, partition, international solution to succession problems Further reference 8