"Politics and Diplomacy between Past and Present: An Introduction to the Treatises on the Ambassador (13th-17th centuries)"

Location: School of International Studies, via T. Gar 14 Trento, Room 001
Time: from 14:15 to 16:00

• Dante Fedele - KU Leuven, Université d'Artois

In his talk, Dante Fedele will outline the late medieval and early modern development of diplomatic scholarship in a body of legal and political texts commonly referred to as the “treatises on the ambassador”. He will provide historical insight into the discussion of some relevant issues in present-day diplomatic and international law, showing the major contribution that this literature provided to the shaping of the status of ambassadors, on the one hand, and the discussion of crucial matters of international law, on the other. As for the first issue, this talk will focus on questions related to diplomatic immunities, and the training and education of diplomats; as for the second one, it will address diplomatic recognition and the selection of diplomatic actors in the context of a multi-layered society, characterized by a high degree of institutional pluralism. Dante Fedele is the author of "Naissance de la diplomatie moderne (XIIIe-XVIIe siècles). L'ambassadeur au croisement du droit, de l'éthique et de la politique" (Studien zur Geschichte des Voelkerrechts, 36, Nomos/Dike, Baden Baden 2017).