New publication | Amsterdam: Sovereignty and Legal Agency of a 17th-Century Commercial City

The ILA Committee on Urbanisation and International Law is pleased to highlight the publication of Amsterdam: Sovereignty and Legal Agency of a 17th-Century Commercial City, co-edited by the Committee’s Co-Chair, Janne E. Nijman.

The volume examines the sovereignty and autonomy of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century. While part of the institutional landscape of the County of Holland and the Dutch Republic, Amsterdam’s economic power extended across the globe and enhanced its political influence at home. Contributions on the city’s institutions, trade, art and religion shed new light on Amsterdam during its “Golden Age”.

The volume includes a chapter by Janne E. Nijman and art historian Arjan de Koomen on the cosmological iconography of the seventeenth-century Amsterdam City Hall, the Paleis op de Dam. The authors argue that, through its architecture, sculptures and spatial organisation, the City Hall projected a vision of Amsterdam’s global position.

Understanding this iconography, the authors argue, requires taking into account an emerging body of knowledge:

ius naturae et gentium – the emerging body of law applicable to questions of war and peace, trade and navigation, good government and extra-European expansion.

The chapter is available open access here: https://brill.com/display/book/9789004761537/b_9789004761537-004.xml

We warmly congratulate Janne E. Nijman, Arjan de Koomen, and all contributors to the volume on this important interdisciplinary contribution.