Ken MacMillan is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Calgary. He is the editor of John Dee: The Limits of the British Empire (2004).

"MacMillan's exploration of the earliest origins of the British transaltlantic imperial constitution is a valuable study that enables us to see the full range of jurisprudence that ultimately became the foundation of British-American constitutionalism in the eighteenth century." -Erin Rahne Kidwell, Georgetown University Law School

• Introduction; 1. Sovereignty, empire, and law in a New World context; 2. Defining the Elizabethan empire in America; 3. Letters patent and the acquest of dominion; 4. Defending sovereignty and possession in the New World; 5. Mapping the English empire in North America; 6. Negotiating the early-Stuart empire in America; Bibliography; Index.

Ken MacMillan is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Calgary. He is the editor of John Dee: The Limits of the British Empire (2004).

"MacMillan's exploration of the earliest origins of the British transaltlantic imperial constitution is a valuable study that enables us to see the full range of jurisprudence that ultimately became the foundation of British-American constitutionalism in the eighteenth century." -Erin Rahne Kidwell, Georgetown University Law School

• Introduction; 1. Sovereignty, empire, and law in a New World context; 2. Defining the Elizabethan empire in America; 3. Letters patent and the acquest of dominion; 4. Defending sovereignty and possession in the New World; 5. Mapping the English empire in North America; 6. Negotiating the early-Stuart empire in America; Bibliography; Index.