This WP takes the judicial system as its point of departure to examine different levels of justice-society relationships from the viewpoint of structured groups and collective actors. The goal is to move beyond the level of the nation-State to consider the networks of international law, justice and policing, as well as colonial powers in their exchanges with the metropolis. At the international level, Belgian jurists play(ed) an important role in configuring International Justice through exchanges on international law, colonial law, occupation law, law of armed conflicts, war crimes and human rights. There is also considerable Belgian involvement in the development of transnational jurisdictions of regulation and control (such as Interpol, Euro-Pol and Euro-Just) as well as in international policing practices.

Coordinator: Pieter Lagrou

Partners involved: UCL, USaint-Louis, UGent, ULB, RMA, Cegesoma, CHJ (Lille 2), Cesdip (UVSQ)

Research projects

• Alexandre Faudon, Repression of International Crimes beyond Borders: The Use of ‘Universal’ in Belgian Legal Discourse. (February 2013-August 2014)
• Thomas Graditzky, The Belgian Contribution to the Development and Interpretation of the Law of Occupation from 1870 to 1950. 
• Ornella Rovetta, Identifying, Describing and Digitizing Belgian Judicial Records Related to the Repression of International Crimes, 1914–2014.
• Project “Data Collection”: Accidents at Work and Social Legislation: Comparative Historical Approach France-Belgium, Legal Reasonings and Judicial Practices (CHJ-Lille 2)

Associated research projects

• Jonas Campion, Military Police Institutions in the 20^th Century: A ‘State in the State’? Socio-political Stakes, Structural Changes and Professional Practices of Belgian Gendarmerie (1918–1957) (UCL)
• Martyna Falkowska, L’activisme du juge pénal international : l’application du droit international général par les juridictions pénales internationales (ULB)
• Anne Godfroid, Les deux occupations belges de la Rhénanie (ULB)
• Florence Rasmont, La mémoire du génocide des Tutsi: Etude du développement des commémorations de 1994 à nos jours (ULB)
• Laurence Schram, Le camp de rassemblement de Malines, entre histoire et mémoire (ULB)
• Amandine Thiry, Confinement as Social Utopia (1830-1914). “Belgian” Reformers and Transnational Ideas about Prisons and Reformatories (UCL)
• Agatha Verdebout, Depuis quand la guerre est-elle “hors la loi”? (ULB)
• Jan Verstraete, René Victor in context (UGent)
• Marie-Anne Weisers, Juger les crimes contre les Juifs : des Allemands devant les tribunaux belges, 1941-1951 (ULB)

Some realisations of WP1a

• International seminars The transgression of borders. Extradition rights and international justice, 18^th-21^st centuries (co-organisation: Lille 2, ULB, Lille 3)
• Study day Henri La Fontaine, prix Nobel de la paix (1913): quels enseignements pour le droit de la guerre? (Brussels, 21 October 2013)
• International conference Présentations et représentations du droit international dans les films et les séries télévisées (Brussels, 17-18 February 2014)
• CIERA network Pour une histoire transnationale et connectée des épurations européennes après 1945
• WP1a International Conference Defeating Impunity, Promoting International Justice. The Archival Trail, 1914-2016 (Brussels, 9-10 March 2016)