Dr. Mads Langballe Jensen

* 1985;

2006-2009 BA in History of Ideas at the University of Aarhus;

2009-2010 MA in Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought at Queen Mary, University of London and University College London;

2010-2014 PhD at Department of History, University College London with a dissertation on Philipp Melanchthon's Political Thought, published as "A Humanist in Reformation Politics: Philipp Melanchthon on Political Philosophy and Natural Law" (Brill, 2020). Doctoral and postdoctoral positions at German and British institutions, including IEG Mainz, MWK Erfurt, IZEA Halle, Royal Holloway London, UCL and KCL.

2020-2022 Carlsberg Reintegration Fellow at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen with the project "Contracts, conquest and conversion: the ideological legitimation of Danish colonialism c. 1650-1850".

From 2022 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at IZEA and PI of the DFG-project "Academic Natural Law in Absolutist Denmark c. 1690-1773: Professionalisation and Politics".

I am a historian of early modern political thought with a particular interest in theories of natural law. My research explores the ways thinkers developed theories of natural law to tackle the religious and political developments of their time, from the Protestant reformation of the sixteenth century, over the enlightenment period in Denmark-Norway, to European overseas colonisation in West Africa and the Caribbean.

My DFG-funded project at IZEA is a history of academic natural law and its intellectual and practical significance in the kingdom of Denmark-Norway c. 1690-1773. From the 1690s, natural law was established as an academic discipline at the University of Copenhagen, with significant links to Halle, leading to an increase in lectures and publications in the subject. In practical terms, natural law was used to justify the absolutist monarchy, its domestic reforms, and overseas colonialism. The project aims to investigate the full extent of academic teaching of natural law in Denmark-Norway c. 1690-1773. It engages with a wide range of printed and manuscript sources, from student notes over printed works to administrative correspondence.

Natural Law 1625-1850. An International Research Project

Schriftenverzeichnis