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Dr. Inge Van Hulle

Head of Max Planck research group
'Legal Connectivities and Colonial Cultures in Africa'.
Legal historian and expert of the History of international law and imperialism in Africa

Curriculum Vitae

Studies

Inge Van Hulle was born in 1987 in Belgium. She studied history and law at KU Leuven in Belgium. From 2012 to 2016 she worked as a research assistant and PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Randall Lesaffer at KU Leuven.

Assistant Professor

From 2016 to 2020 she was Assistant Professor of legal history at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, where she taught a wide variety of courses, such as history of international law, international legal history and history of empire.

Max Planck

Since April 2021, she is head of the Max Planck Research Group  Legal Connectivities and Colonial Cultures in Africa at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, including a recent monograph 'Britain and international law in West Africa. The Practice of Empire’ (OUP, 2020).

Other academic activities

Member of the editorial board of the German Law Journal.
Book review editor of the Journal of the History of International Law.
Member of the editorial board of Pro Memorie.

Grants and Awards

Robert Feenstra Award, TvR/Legal History Review, 2016
Max Planck Research Group grant by the Max Planck Society, 2021-2026

Publications

Books

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Britain and International Law in West Africa

The Practice of Empire

Explores the role of international law in Britain's imperialist expansion into West Africa during the early- and mid-nineteenth century

Engages with the broader debate on the historical relationship between international law and imperialism, complicating the traditional narratives

Based on a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of archival material

International Law in the
Long Nineteenth Century
(1776-1914)

From the Public Law of Europe to Global International Law?

Explores the role of international law in Britain's imperialist expansion into West Africa during the early- and mid-nineteenth century

Engages with the broader debate on the historical relationship between international law and imperialism, complicating the traditional narratives

Based on a comprehensive assessment of a wide range of archival material

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Chapters & Articles

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘The Treaty of Washington and Neutrals’ Duty of Due Diligence’, in Randall Lesaffer (ed.), Oxford Historical Treaties (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019)

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘British Humanitarianism, International Law and Human Sacrifice in West Africa’, in Randall Lesaffer and Inge Van Hulle (eds.), International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century: Ten Studies (Leiden: Brill, 2019).

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Imperial Consolidation through Arbitration: Territorial and Boundary Disputes in Africa (1870-1914)’, in Ignacio De La Rasilla del Moral and Jorge E. Viñuales (eds.), Experiments in International Adjudication (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Unequal Treaties’, in Gordon Martel (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy (New Jersey: Wiley, 2018).

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘British Protection, Extraterritoriality and Protectorates in West Africa 1807-1880’, in Lauren Benton, Adam Clulow and Bain Attwood (eds.), Protection and Empire. A Global History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 194-210.

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘The Sphere of Influence in International Law (1870-1920)’, in Dave De ruysscher, Kaat Capelle, Maarten Colette, Brecht Deseure and Gorik Van Assche (eds.), Legal History, Moving in New Directions (Antwerp: Maklu, 2015), 395-410.

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Grotius, Informal Empire and the Conclusion of Unequal Treaties’, Grotiana 37 (2016), 43-60

Van Hulle, Inge, Arielli Nir and Gabriela Frei, ‘The Foreign Enlistment Act, International Law and British Politics (1819-2014)’, International History Review 37 (2016), 1-21.

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Britain’s Recognition of the Spanish American Republics: the Gap between Theory and Practice in International Law (1810-1900)’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d’Histoire du Droit/ The Legal History Review 82 (2014), 284-322.

Book reviews

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Benedicte Savoy, Afrikas Kampf um seine Kunst. Beck, 2021, +256 p.’, Rechtsgeschichte 29 (2022), forthcoming.

Van Hulle, Inge, 'The Comforts and Confines of the Legal Imagination. Rechtsgeschichte' - Legal History Rg 29, pp. 286 - 288 (2021)

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘Juan Pablo Scarfi, The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas. Empire and Legal Networks, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 280 pp, hbk £64.00’, The Modern Law Review 81 (2018), 925-928.

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘J. Lemnitzer, Power, Law and the End of Privateering. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2014. +254 p.’, Journal of the History of International Law 17 (2015), 139-142.

Van Hulle, Inge, ‘M. Garcia-Salmones Rovira, The Project of Positivism in International Law. [The History and Theory of International Law], Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013. +427 p.’, Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis / Revue d’Histoire du Droit/ The Legal History Review 82 (2014), 335-338.

Media

House of Wisdom podcast - Episode 5 - Britain and International Law in West Africa

Contact

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