The Conflict Research Group, in collaboration with the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies, invites you to attend CRG Book Launch 23: Contested States in War and Law, edited by Janis Grzybowski, Giulia Prelz Oltramonti, and Agatha Verdebout.
Contested States in War and Law
CRG Book Launch 23
Laura Luciani (Ghent Institute for International and European Studies)
in conversation with
Janis Grzybowski (Université libre de Bruxelles)
Bart Klem and Gaëlle Le Pavic (Ghent University)
Date: June 2, 2026 (Tuesday)
Time: 11:00–12:30
Venue: Room 3.1 (3rd Floor), Technicum 1, UFO Campus, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41
Sandwiches and drinks will be served at the Refter afterwards.
To register, scan the QR code or click the link:
https://event.ugent.be/registration/warandlawbook
ABOUT THE BOOK
The precarious status of contested states both reflects and begets conflict. From Taiwan to Western Sahara and from Nagorno-Karabakh to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, contested states call into question the standard categories of international law that divide inside and outside, state and non-state, war and rebellion. They inevitably fall in-between them, while alternatively disputing and negotiating their applicability. Bringing together perspectives from a range of disciplines, the book focuses on some of the most entrenched conflicts around the world. It reveals how different actors, including de facto governments, parent and patron states, local populations, and international courts, navigate the grey zone as they redraw, or work around, the fault lines of war and law.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Janis Grzybowski is associate professor in International Relations at the ULB. He received his PhD from the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID) and has previously been a lecturer at ESPOL in Lille as well as a research fellow at Helsinki University and the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. His research focuses on state making, the politics of international law, and international theory.
Laura Luciani is a postdoctoral researcher at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies and an affiliated researcher at the VUB Research Centre for Democratic Futures. Her current research explores everyday experiences of in/security amidst geopolitical shifts in the South Caucasus. Laura's research interests revolve around the local effects and negotiations of EU interventions, post-socialist civil society and activism, the geopolitics of gender and sexuality, and meaning-making in international politics.
Bart Klem is Professor at Ghent University. His work focuses on democratic politics, citizenship, de facto sovereignty and public authority in societies riven by conflict and/or civil war. He leads the SovereignPerformance project (www.sovereignperformance.be).