Contenu du sommaire : Observer le monde. Droits de résidence. Acteurs transnationaux de l'arbitrage

Members of the French clergy showed considerable enthusiasm for the natural sciences during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Hundreds of priests and friars were practising entomology or ornithology, with the intention of contributing to scientific progress and shedding light on Creation. Natural science was both an extension of apostolic action and a hobby, which explains why the Catholic Church hierarchy was ambivalent to these activities, which were tolerated more than they were encouraged. This enthusiasm for the natural sciences was a grassroots trend, which also conveyed meaning about how the institution functioned. It was a sign that clergy members could build their own paths and develop activities that partially evaded supervision by the Church hierarchy. Hence the natural sciences were also seen as a space of freedom, allowing clergy members to be partially freed from the weight of the institution.

This article focuses on the network of members of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), a learned astronomical society founded by Camille Flammarion in 1887. It outlines a prosopography and a cartography of the SAF's 3,500 members in 1913, shedding light on the functioning and the dynamics of the society at a time when social interest in science reached its peak. The SAF was characterised by ambivalence towards professional astronomy, on the question of extraterrestrial life, for example. An analysis of this amateur network also sheds light on the role of non-professionals in the mechanisms of internationalisation and globalisation of science. Then the paper focuses specifically on the Argentinean case.

This paper focuses on the Decree of 29 March 1871, issued by the Paris Commune, which decided to cancel (or remit) rents that were unpaid during the Siege of Paris, as well as rents due in April 1871. The question of rental debt arose as soon as peace was restored at the end of January. Stakeholders were moving towards a negotiated solution : juries would decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not to forgive debt. The National Assembly never decreed payment of rental debt. The cancelling of all rents, decided by the Commune, can be explained as a political move aimed at winning the bourgeoisie over to its side against the government established in Versailles. But the fact that war profiteers also benefited from debt relief did not go down well with the general population. The local councils and police enforced the decree, despite resistance from landlords, but they interpreted it to the letter and no further. Neither the law nor the “customs” that governed the procedures were challenged. However, this was the first time that an established power had sided with poor tenants by writing off their debts.

Through the study of a collection of essays related to statelessness, refugee and nationality laws, the analysis focuses on the legal definition of so-called gypsy populations and the construction of a category of “stateless Gypsy” in Interwar Europe. The critical examination of this corpus shows the recycling of old prejudices that involved the stereotyped image of a structural nomadism, aiming to define a group supposedly detached from any national belonging. Therefore, the Roma presence in Europe seems to have been assimilated to a legal incongruity and an historical enigma. The article includes the analysis of a proposal made in 1936 by a renowned French lawyer intending to put so-called Gypsy people, considered both unexpellable and undesirable, into camps.

This paper analyses how the institution of Swiss private arbitration relied on the competence and prestige of the Swiss high magistracy to ensure its functioning in the 20th century. Prior to serving the business sector, many federal judges worked for the Swiss good offices during the Interwar period, chairing interstate arbitration tribunals. In doing so, these judges accumulated various resources that they would later use on the private arbitration market. In particular, for politically sensitive, technically complex trade disputes with high financial stakes, these members of the Supreme Court of a “neutral” country proved to be highly competitive assets for the Swiss arbitration sector. However, this liberal arrangement around a profession that was nevertheless highly regulated gradually disappeared from the 1980s onwards due to the increasing professionalisation of arbitration on an international scale and because of a new regulation of the Swiss judicial system.

This article investigates the influence that the international debates over corporatism had on the regulation of collective labour relations during the 1930s, taking Luxembourg as an example. Focusing on the debates between the social Catholic and social democratic currents, the article illustrates the diversity of approaches to corporatism and the controversies it generated in a context of political radicalisation. It then considers the role of the debates on corporatism in the convergence of Christian and social democratic unionism around the demand for government regulation of collective labour relations. As a result, the article contributes to our understanding of the formation of industrial relations systems in Europe, as well as of the international circulation of the debates over corporatism.