I CIEPC

Contemporary Protocol: From the Congress of Vienna to the present day (1814-2014)

The Research Group on the History of Legal and Political Thought of the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Madrid (Spain) convened the International Congress “Contemporary Protocol: from the Congress of Vienna to the present (1814-2014)”, coinciding with the VIII UNED Conference on Protocol, which, under the motto “Protocol and Diplomacy”, took place in the Assembly Hall of the Faculties of Law and Political Science and Sociology, during the days of April 23, 24 and 25, 2014.

Two hundred years ago, in the Austrian city of Vienna, the great powers of the time held an international meeting to re-establish the borders of Europe after the defeat of Napoleon I and to carry out a significant ideological reform of the conceptual foundations of states, based on the monarchical principle of legitimacy and the principles of equality and balance among states. Protocol, as an image of power, emerged—distinct from mere ceremony—at the hands of Napoleon I and the Cortes of Cádiz, for different reasons, but with the same underlying purpose: the need to lend legitimacy to power. From then on, the European ceremonial conception changed, the order of precedence between states adapted to the new order based on the principle of equality of nations, and diplomacy adapted to the new circumstances. Political events would determine the course along which protocol evolved into what it is today. Coinciding with the Bicentennial of that event, at this Congress, we will talk about those events, the protocol, the ceremonial, the evolution of the protocol from the ceremonial, the nature of the protocol, its character, the elements on which it is based and the techniques it uses, as well as its different areas of action in a modern and globalized society.

Seven sections comprised the International Congress "The Contemporary Protocol":

1. Historical aspects of the protocol

2. Protocol Techniques

3. Protocol strategies

4. Protocol as a legal discipline

5. Diplomacy and protocol

6. Specific areas of the protocol

7. Protocol, Communication and Public Relations

There were conferences, guest speakers, and the traditional presentations and communications received from each of the scheduled sections.