A Search for Sovereignty

Lauren Benton is Professor of History and Affiliate Professor of Law at New York University. Her book Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900 (Cambridge, 2002) won the Law and Society Association's James Willard Hurst Book Prize, the World History Association Book Prize, and the PEWS Book Award from the American Sociological Association, Political Economy of the World Systems Section.

'Lauren Benton's book is sure to remap how we think about the geography of world history. Elegantly written, theoretically sophisticated, and impressively documented, this book challenges the common view of sovereignty as the result of spreading laws and extending territorial claims, as if the world rested on a divide between lawful and lawless lands.' Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University

• 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.