XVI Annual Baltic Military History Conference
Historical Perspectives on the Laws of War and the Implementation of Military Justice
The upcoming Baltic Military History Conference will examine laws of war and military justice practices through a historical lens, exploring their profound effects on societies, people, and state institutions with a focus on the Baltic Sea region.
30-31 OCTOBER 2025
UNIVERSITY OF TARTU LIBRARY & ONLINE
PROGRAMME
PROGRAMME
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Registration
9:00 AM - 9:05 AM
Administrative Remarks by Conference Director
Mr Art Johanson
9:05 AM - 9:20 AM
Opening of the Conference
Welcoming remarks by the Commandant of the Baltic Defence College Brigadier General Alvydas Šiuparis and the Director of the Estonian War Museum Mr Hellar Lill
9:20 AM - 9:30 AM
Memorial Coin
Representative of the Central Bank of Estonia
9:30 AM - 10:30 PM
Keynote Speech
- Friedrich Martens (1845–1909) and the Imperial Humanitarianism in Russia
- University of Tartu
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Panel I - Military Law Codification: Processes and Influencing Factors, moderated by Prof. Pärtel Piirimäe, University of Tartu
- The Codification of the Laws of War in the Early Modern Northern European Context
- Swedish Defence University
- War, Morality, and Choice: An Examination of Classical Just War Theory Through a Contemporary Lens
- Estonian Military Academy
- Military war crimes trials in historical and comparative perspective
- Swedish Defence University
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Lunch
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Panel II - Framework of Military Justice, moderated by Prof. Marju Luts-Sootak, University of Tartu
- The Lithuanian Military Justice System: Theoretical and Practical Approach in 1919–1940
- General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
- “The Role of The Court Martial in The Judical System of Interwar Latvia in the 1920s”
- Latvian War Museum
- “In accordance with the just demands of the majority of the people…” Discussions about Field Courts Martial in the Estonian Constituent Assembly, 1919-1920
- University of Tartu
- From Officer’s Honour to the Good Name of the Army, and Back Again: Disciplinary Law and Officer Identity in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1949
- Charles University / Military History Institute Prague
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Coffee Break
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Panel III - Legal Case Studies, moderated by Mr Olavi Jänes, Baltic Defence College
- Polish Research on war law in the late 19th century and early 20th century (casus of Professor Gustaw Roszkowski and Professor Antoni Białecki)
- University of Law in Wrocław
- Of Criminal Offence and War Crime: A Forensic Reflection upon the Medininkai Affair (1991) Under the Law of War
- General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
- The Legal Aspects of the Participation of the Latvian Armed Forces in the Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion (1994–2004)
- History Teacher
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Registration
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Panel IV - Historical Dimensions of Military Law, moderated by Dr George Spencer Terry, Baltic Defence College
- Property, Piety, and Prisoners: Regulating Captivity in the Siete Partidas
- Diocesan Museum St. Afra/ University of Passau
- Different theatre, different rules? War and the urban environment during the Second Scottish War of Independence (1332–1357)
- University of the Highlands and Islands
- The Things of War Re-examined: Ideal and Practice of Military Law in Early Seventeenth-Century Central European Mercenary Regiments
- Hoover Institution, Stanford University
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Coffee Break
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Panel V - Treatment of the Prisoners of War, moderated by Mr Louis Wierenga, Baltic Defence College
- The employment of prisoners of war and the Geneva Convention. The case of Polish prisoners of war in the Third Reich, as a starting point for the mass employment of prisoners of war in the war economy
- Institute of National Remembrance in Wroclaw
- Lessons Unlearned: From the Gulags to the Donbas—Soviet POW Practices and the Struggle for International Humanitarian Law Reform in the Post-Soviet Armies 1991-2025
- University of Glasgow
- The Representation of Prisoners of War in the Museum Holdings of the Vytautas the Great War Museum: Context and Research Perspectives
- Vytautas the Great War Museum
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Panel VI - Legal Dimensions of Military Occupation and Civilian-Military Relations, moderated by CDR (ret) Paul Austin, Estonian Military Academy
- The wartime atrocities versus its own population: treason, internment, and mobilization in WWI Habsburg Galicia, 1914-1915
- Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute
- The Military occupation against indigenous elites? Romanian “hostages” under the German administration, 1916-1918
- The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
- The legal regulation for the protection of classified information in Estonia between 1918 and 1940
- International Centre for Defence and Security
- German military administration in Polish territories in September–October 1939
- University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn / The St. John Paul II Museum of Memory and Identity
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Coffee Break
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Panel VII - Wartime Recruitment and Support in WWI and WWI, moderated by Dr Ivo Juurvee, International Centre for Defence and Security
- Joining the Dark Side – the History of Voluntary Recruitment of POWs
- Assistance provided to demobilised soldiers by Polish Offices in North Africa in 1940–1941
4:30 PM -
