Team

(image generated with Artificial Intelligence)

TREATYLAB consists of a team of five fulltime collaborators, as well as a part-time Project Managing Officer, a project officer from our external partner for digitization and two student workers. 

PI (2026-2031)

Prof. Frederik Dhondt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Faculty of Law and Criminology).

Frederik Dhondt (1984) studied law (Ghent, 2007), history (Ghent/Erasmus Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2008) and international relations (École doctorale, Sciences Po Paris 2009). He obtained a PhD in law as PhD-Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University in 2013 (supervisor: prof. Dr. Dirk Heirbaut). 

After working as Faculty postdoctoral assistant (2013-2014) and Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) at the Ghent Law Faculty, he was appointed as Assistant (2015) and Associate Professor (2020) of legal, constitutional and political history of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where he teaches Political History of Belgium, Historical and Comparative Introduction to Public Law and Legal History. From 1 October 2026 on, he is a research professor of the VUB's Research Council. Between 2016 and 2020, he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Antwerp. In 2020-2021 (due to the pandemic 2021-2022), he was a visiting professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as holder of the OVR Chair (Stichting Oud-Vaderlands Recht, collega proximus prof. Hylkje de Jong). He has been a visiting researcher in Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Geneva, as well as an auditor at the Hague Academy of International Law.

In 2016, he won the Van Caenegem Prize, awarded by the European Society for Comparative Legal History for the best article published by an author under 40 in the peer reviewed journal Comparative Legal History. In 2012, he obtained the Prize for Historical Research of the Province of East Flanders for his 2011 monograph on the War of the Spanish Succession. The same work equally received the Thesis Prize 2008 of the Dutch-Belgian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies and -ex aequo- the André Schaepdrijver Prize 2008 for best Master Thesis at Ghent University. In 2007, he won the Ghent Court of Appeal Prize for best MA essays in law.

Frederik Dhondt focuses on legal argumentation in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century diplomacy. In 2015, he published the monograph Balance of Power and Norm Hierarchy. Franco-British Diplomacy after the Peace of Utrecht (Brill), vol. 17 in the Legal History Library (eds. Dirk Heirbaut, Matthew C. Mirow & C.H. Van Rhee)/vol. 7 in the series Studies in the History of International Law (ed. Randall Lesaffer). Other publications include chapters in The Cambridge History of International Law (ed. Randall Lesaffer), the Research Handbook on Peace in Early Modern Europe (ed. Irene Dingel et al), the Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law (ed. Hélène Ruiz Fabri), the Handbuch der europaïschen Verfassungsgeschichte im 19. Jahrhundert (ed. Peter Brandt/Werner Daum), Utrecht 1713, une paix pour le monde (ed. Lucien Bély, Guillaume Hanotin & Géraud Poumarède), articles in Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis/The Legal History Review, Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d’histoire du droit international, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis/Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, History of European Ideas, Clio@Thémis, Nuova Antologia Militare, Revue d’Histoire Diplomatique and Rechtskultur. In 2025, he co-edited the volume Small Power Neutrality and the Law of the Sea in the Long Eighteenth Century (1650-1800). Law as argument in the Pelagic Arena (with Stefano Cattelan/Brill), series History of European Constitutional and Political Thought (eds. Erica Benner, Laszlo Kontler & Mark Somos). 

A full list of publications is available on the VUB’s research portal Pure.

Contact: frederik dot dhondt at vub dot be

Postdoc (2027-2031): An Inside-Out View of Mixed Constitutions and Composite Polities, 1712-1763

dr. Stefano Cattelan (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Faculty of Law and Criminology)

Stefano Cattelan (1992) studied law at the University of Trento (Italy) and obtained a PhD in Law at the University of Aarhus (Denmark). He was a scientific collaborator at the University of Aalborg, before moving to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with a postdoctoral Internationalisation Grant of the Carlsberg Foundation (2022-2023). Since 1 January 2024, he is a postdoctoral researcher on FWO Junior Fundamental Research Project G016122 (In the Shadow of the Great Powers: Freedom of the Sea and Neutrality in the Long Eighteenth Century). Since August 2023, he equally is an Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance, where he teaches History and Theory of International Law.

In 2025, dr. Cattelan published his monograph Mare Clausum: The Formation of the Law of the Sea in Pre-Modern State Practice and Legal Doctrine (c. 1350–1650) (Brill), vol. 77 in the Legal History Library (eds. Dirk Heirbaut, Michelle McKinley, Matthew C. Mirow & C.H. Van Rhee), vol. 28 in the series Studies in the History of International Law (ed. Randall Lesaffer). He contributed two chapters to vol. VI (International Law in Early Modern Europe) of The Cambridge History of International Law (ed. Randall Lesaffer). 

dr. Cattelan has been a visiting researcher in Tilburg, Bergen (Norway), Paris (ENS) and Padova. 

A full list of publications is available on the VUB’s research portal Pure.

stefano dot cattelan at vub dot be

PhD Candidates (2026-2030)

PhD Candidate 1: They Called it Peace ? The Use of Force and the Cycle of Truces, 1712-1763

Mathias Campens (2000) studied law at KU Leuven and obtained a Master of Laws in International and European Law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He subsequently completed a shortened bachelor's programme and a master's degree in Ancient History at KU Leuven. Since October 2026, he is pursuing a PhD within TREATYLAB, researching the history of the use of force and the cycle of treaties between 1712 and 1763, with a particular focus on the memoranda of Le Dran.

PhD Candidate 2: The Latin and Atlantic Bond ? Bourbon Law of Nations in Europe and America, 1712-1763

Arlan Hoste (2003) earned a master’s degree in history at the University of Antwerp (2024), during which he got acquainted with legal and political history. As of 1 October 2026, he is a PhD-student at the VUB. He is interested in how late medieval/early modern legal frameworks and political/juridical discourse shaped, enhanced or legitimised the practice of power on an everyday basis, as well as how informal mechanisms such as personal networks co-existed with and complemented formal institutions during said everyday practice of power.

PhD Candidate 3: Doctrine and Practice: Early Enlightenment Doctrine and Practical Legal Writing, 1712-1763

Lorenzo Veglia (1999) obtained a master degree in law at the Università degli Studi di Torino (2026), with a thesis on Thomas Hobbes' political and legal theory. During his studies, he spent a semester in Fukuoka (Japan). His interests lie at the intersection of legal history and the history of ideas, as well as with law and humanities (literature, theatre). Within TREATYLAB, he will concentrate on doctrine and Le Dran's writings.

PMO

Mrs. Els Decoster supports the project part-time (20%). She joined the Brussels University Alliance (VUB/ULB) in 2021 and is currently the VUB Local Facilitator for EUTOPIA, supporting a.o. the Connected Community Legal History, led by prof. Frederik Dhondt.

Els dot decoster at vub dot be, available on Tuesday and Thursday morning.

Digitization Project Officer

Mr. Johannes Schwarz supports our project for Read-Coop.

Student workers

Gabriel Bogaert and Kristof Winderickx, second year Bachelor of Law students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, help us with WP1 (source collection).