A Search for Sovereignty
Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400–1900

This book examines how European imperial powers imagined imperial space, constructing sovereignty in ways that merged geographic discourse with law.

Lauren Benton (Author)

9780521881050, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 November 2009

358 pages, 4 b/w illus. 6 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.7 kg

'… succeed[s] in presenting a compelling set of reasons for questioning teleological accounts of sovereignty … [Benton] provides many points of entry for further elaboration on the ways in which empire disrupts the narrative of a steady convergence of sovereignty and bounded territory culminating in the present international legal order.' Kate Purcell, British Yearbook of International Law

A Search for Sovereignty approaches world history by examining the relation of law and geography in European empires between 1400 and 1900. Lauren Benton argues that Europeans imagined imperial space as networks of corridors and enclaves, and that they constructed sovereignty in ways that merged ideas about geography and law. Conflicts over treason, piracy, convict transportation, martial law, and crime created irregular spaces of law, while also attaching legal meanings to familiar geographic categories such as rivers, oceans, islands, and mountains. The resulting legal and spatial anomalies influenced debates about imperial constitutions and international law both in the colonies and at home. This study changes our understanding of empire and its legacies and opens new perspectives on the global history of law.

1. Introduction: anomalies of empire
2. Treacherous places: Atlantic riverine regions and the law of treason
3. Sovereignty at sea: jurisdiction, piracy, and ocean regionalism
4. Island chains: military law and convict transportation
5. Landlocked: colonial enclaves and the problem of quasi-sovereignty
6. Conclusion: bare sovereignty and empire.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], European history [HBJD], General & world history [HBG]