International Conference 2024

Hanse and International Law – Objectives for the conference

This conference brings together Hanse historians, legal historians, and international law experts to explore the governance dimension of the Hanse and its repercussions for the understanding of contemporary international law. For decades Hanse historians have been struggling to adequately conceptualise the interplay between Hanse towns, Kontors, and merchants, as the execution of political and legal power in the multidimensional configuration of the Hanse can neither be adequately explained by applying the analogy of the “nation-state” nor by reducing it to private networks. The legal and functional nature of the Hanse has therefore been hard to grasp. Scholars of public international law likewise push on overcoming the focus on the “nation-state” that has been prevailing since the wake of the international order that emerged from the Westphalian Peace. Explaining the multilevel governance structures of today’s globalised international legal order requires new perspectives and approaches. The Hanse serves as an interesting historical example of the complex coordination between various more or less independent actors and institutions.

The conference will allow us to address a range of topics such the (legal) character of the Hanse, the role of cities in the internal and external dimension of governance, decision-making procedures and enforcement, as well as conflict-management within poly-centric governance settings.

Short program

Detailed Program

Keynote
Professor Randall Lesaffer, University of Tilburg: The Hanse, the law of nations and the contractual state in Old Regime Europe

Session I: Hanse and Governance Dimension
Professor Ulla Kypta, University of Hamburg: Pluralistic Governance and its Limits
Professor Johann Ruben Leiss, University of Oslo: Polycentric Jurisdictions in the Hanse and in contemporary international law

Session II: The Role of Cities in Governance
Professor Helmut Aust, Freie Universität Berlin: Hanseatic Implications for the Urban Turn in International Law?
Professor Marju Luts-Sootak, University of Tartu, Proffesor Merike Ristikivi, University of Tartu: The Plague as a Trigger for the Development of Governance Practices?
Professor Stefan Oeter, University of Hamburg: The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – Implications of the Dual Status as Free Imperial City and Hanse Member in Hamburg´s Late Medieval Constitutional Histor

Session III: Decision-making
Professor Søren Koch, University of Bergen: Ratio sit Anima Legis – pluralistic governance and conflict management at the Hanse Kontor in Bergen
Professor Dave De ruysscher, Tilburg University: The Hansa kontor of Bruges in Antwerp: Armwrestling over Jurisdiction (c. 1530-c. 1580)
Lars Regula, University of Hamburg: Back in business? – Governance structures in the Hanseatic Orient policy of the 19th century

Session IV: Conflict Management
Professor Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, University of Amsterdam: The ‘correct procedure’ of conflict management in the Hanse: policies and practices
Professor Freya Baetens, Oxford University: Nil novi sub sole: Unilateral economic pressure as conflict management

Session V: War and security
Dr. Philipp Höhn, University of Halle-Wittenberg: War, violence and frontiers and the formation of inter-urban regimes. The wendish Hanse towns and the cinque port compared.
Professor Gregor Rohmann, University of Rostock: The Language of Violence in a Pluralist Legal Regime. Contested Semantics of Maritime Predation in Late Medieval Northern Europe

Confirmed chairs and other participants: Dr. Anne Dienelt, University of Hamburg; Annamaria Monti, University of Milano, Fernanda Pieri, University of Oxford, Albrecht Cordes, Universität Frankfurt, Geir Atle Ersland, University of Bergen, Angela Huang, Director of the Research Center for Hanse and Baltic History, Tilman Repken, Dean of the law faculty of the University of Hamburg.

Registration