Percursos do Princípio das Nacionalidades nas doutrinas belgas de Direito Internacional: do Círculo de Gante à Escola de Lovânia (1863-1953)

Abstract

During the span of the second half of the XIXth century to the first half of the XXth, belgian international law studies proved itself a particularly fertile field when it came to discussion of the Nationality Principle. In the beginning, this was guided by the influence of the works of italian Pasquale Stanislao Mancini and french Ernest Renan, which were followed by important jurists operating from Belgium, such as François Laurent, Eugène Baie and Henri Carton de Wiart, whose studies managed to compose an unprecedented mosaic of analyses, which unfolded as an attempt not only to encapsulate the ongoing political events that mark the genesis of Belgian legal and political history - anticipating the events of the "Springtime of the Peoples" -, in the theoretical assumptions of the Principle, but also as an effort to legitimize the sovereignty of that young State. In an opposing direction, on the cusp of the XXth century, Ernest Nys, Pierre Harmignie and Charles de Visscher brought forth significant criticism which at first led to the delegitimizing of the usage of the Principle outside of its originating context, and, following that, its complete historicization, dooming it to the annals of international legal history. The contradictions and ruptures that came to surface in the torturous itinerary of the Nationality Principle amongst the plumes of Belgian doctrine in the 90 years period that spanned its ascension and decline are the subject of this paper.