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PhD Vacancies published (DEADLINE 8 JUL 2026)

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(image generated with Artificial Intelligence) Three full-time PhD vacancies have been published on the VUB academic vacancies website . Candidates with a master’s degree in law or history may apply for all positions. The formal notices should be read together with the more detailed thematic description of each position  here . PhD1: 'They Called it Peace ? The Use of Force and the Cycle of Truces, 1712-1763' ( here ) PhD2: 'The Latin and Atlantic Bond ? Bourbon Law of Nations in Europe and America, 1712-1763' ( here ) PhD3: 'Doctrine and Practice: Early Enlightenment Doctrine and Practical Legal Writing, 1712-1763' ( here ) The deadline for candidacies is 8 July 2026 , with an expected starting date on 1 October 2026 .
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(image generated with Artificial Intelligence) We are happy to present the ERC Consolidator Grant TREATYLAB ("The Labyrinth of Treaties, 1712-1763. International Law Behind the Scenes of Early Enlightenment Diplomacy, 1712-1763"). This project does not create a "lab" in the sense of a laboratory. Neither does it focus on treaties. We investigate the legal advisory work produced in the bureaux des affaires étrangères  under Louis XV, using over a hundred thousands of folios attributed to top civil servant Nicolas-Louis Le Dran (1687-1774) . Le Dran’s lifetime is grosso modo  that of Enlightened natural law, stretching from Hugo Grotius’ De iure belli ac pacis libri tres  (1625) and Samuel von Pufendorf De iure naturae et gentium libri octo  (1672) -both translated and annotated by Jean Barbeyrac- to Montesquieu’s De l’Esprit des Loix  (1748), Adam Friedrich Glafey’s Vernunft- und Völckerrecht  (1723), Cornelis van Bynkershoek’s Quaestionum Iuris Publici Libr...
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