CONFERENCE: Territoire(s). Notion, limites et extensions (Lille: Université de Lille, Salle Guy Debeyre, 14-15 NOV 2025)

(Image source: Univ-droit)

Abstract

Understood as part of the earth’s surface in the usual sense, described by Sextus Pomponius in the Digest as ‘all the land within the boundaries of any community’, territory is defined in modern and contemporary times as ‘a constitutive element of the State, for which it forms the geographical basis and whose powers it determines’. The link between territory and public and judicial authorities thus predates the concept of the State. The civil authority freely administers and organises its territory, which is divisible and divided. It can also create subdivisions within the same territory, which have a greater or lesser extent of autonomy and their own powers, as in the case of French decentralisation or the devolution of power in the United Kingdom.

The notion of territory inherently includes the idea of its own limit, i.e. the border, and raises the question of its extension. 

National borders can be natural (theory of the natural borders of France) or artificial (borders of the European colonies in Africa and Asia). It can be physical, such as a city wall, but it can also be vague, such as the limes of ancient Rome or the demarcation of the European continent from Asia. The border divides an internal space (the territory itself) from a space beyond, in which sovereignty no longer applies and public authority no longer has any power. It is therefore possible, as the Roman jurist Paul wrote, to disobey ‘the judge who exercises jurisdiction outside his territory’4. In this context, the rules of international private and criminal law clarify the problems raised when a legal act or crime is committed abroad and provide solutions to conflicts of law and jurisdiction.

This consideration of borders invites us to examine how war shapes territory, particularly through annexation, recognition of a newly-formed state or state succession. These different ways of altering borders can bring up complex legal issues. Medieval jurists developed the ‘just war theory’, derived from Roman fetial law and the reflections of Christian thinkers of late antiquity. International law has gradually incorporated mechanisms to limit the effects of war on territories and populations, but these legal principles are difficult to reconcile with geopolitical realities. At national level, the extension of borders through the incorporation of new territories can lead to the establishment of special public and private law statutes, as in certain overseas territories, former French colonies, or in the British Overseas Territories.

Territories are constantly extending their borders to new horizons, such as the sea from the end of the Middle Ages and the sky and space in the 20th century. Diplomacy is instrumental in exploring and sharing these new territories and spaces. More generally, diplomacy is a means of preventing or resolving border and territorial disputes between states, as well as maintaining peaceful international relations and boosting economic exchanges. 

Program:

Vendredi 14 novembre 2025

09h00 : Mots d’accueil et propos introductifs

• Gaël Chantepie, Directeur de l’École doctorale SJPG
• Serge Dauchy, Directeur du CHJ
• Alexandra Garifullina, Hugo Neuhauser, Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille

Séance 1. Territoire(s), échelles et frontières

• 9h30: Daniel Bökenkamp, Tilburg University - Territory and Scale in Urban Legal History: A Framework for Comparative Analysis.
• 9h50: Quentin Muller, Université de Lorraine / Alexandre Ruelle, CY Cergy Paris Université - Concevoir le(s) territoire(s) dans des États composites au XVIIe siècle. L’exemple des espaces lorrain et savoyard.
• 10h10: Antoine Laurent, Université Paris Panthéon Assas - Penser le territoire par la frontière : réflexions sur la conceptualisation exclusive du territoire en droit international.

Séance 2. Territoire(s), cultures et identités

• 11h20: Natalie Schwabl, Sorbonne Université - Constructions et légitimations des frontières dans les régimes fascistes : l’exemple du territoire de l’« État indépendant de Croatie » (1941-1945).
• 11h40: Asena Poyrazer, Université Paris Saclay - Territorialiser l’immatériel ? Approche juridique du patrimoine culturel immatériel en contexte post-conflit.
• 12h00: Raphaël Capet, Université Toulouse Capitole - Le territoire de chasse comme palimpseste.

Séance 3. Territoire(s) divisés

• 14h30: Jean-Michel Mangiavillano, Office français de la biodiversité - Le découpage entre le territoire urbain et le territoire rural de la Provence baroque d’après le Code Buisson : le témoignage de la réception de la romanité.
• 14h50 : Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille - Chambres de commerce et territorialisation du pouvoir économique : les cas de Lille et Dunkerque au XVIIIe siècle.
• 15h10 : Benedetta Rinaldi Ferri, EHESS - Un idiome juridictionnel de la ville : la dédicace des espaces en droit contemporain (Italie, 1971-1988).

Séance 4. Territoire(s) occupés et colonisés

• 16h20 : Thao Anh Hoang, Université de Montpellier - La question du conflit de lois sur les territoires colonisés : le cas du Vietnam (1862-1945).
• 16h40 : Paul-Emmanuel Babin, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah - Le « quadrillage » du FLN pendant la guerre d’indépendance algérienne ou la constitution d’une véritable atteinte à l’intégrité du territoire national ?
• 17h00 : Claire de Blois, Université d’Orléans - Du territoire occupé au territoire revendiqué : l’effectivité de la souveraineté territoriale face aux occupations prolongées.

Samedi 15 novembre 2025

Séance 5. Territoire(s) et souveraineté

• 10h00: Stefano Cattelan, Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Sarpi et la mer Adriatique : le territoire maritime vénitien entre souveraineté et déclin (v. 1610–1720).
• 10h20 : Andrea Raffaele Amato, Università di Macerata - À l’ombre de la Grande Guerre. La nature juridique du territoire d’élément co-essentiel de la souveraineté étatique à simple objet de dominum dans la disponibilité de l’État-nation : Santi Romano, Tommaso Perassi
• et Donato Donati (1902-1924).
• 10h40 : Alexandra Garifullina, Université de Lille - The Status of Outer Space in Legal Soviet Doctrine.

11h30 : Propos conclusifs

• Alexandra Garifullina, Hugo Neuhauser, Lucie Ranchoux, Université de Lille

More information can be found here