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Aboriginal Sovereignty and Status in the ‘Empire(s) of Uniformity’

P.G. McHUGH

in Aboriginal Societies and the Common Law: A History of Sovereignty, Status, and Self-Determination

Through the 17th and most of the 18th centuries, the formal pattern of British relations with non-Christian societies carried strong residual traces of a medieval and personalized approach to the ... More

Through the 17th and most of the 18th centuries, the formal pattern of British relations with non-Christian societies carried strong residual traces of a medieval and personalized approach to the nature of sovereign authority. This was expressed through an underlying jurisdictionalism by which British authority over non-Christians was based upon treaty, protocol and suchlike relations with those people. Essentially this approach recognized and worked through the political authority of the non-Christian polity. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, however, a new, modern approach towards sovereign authority emerged and was applied to tribal peoples. This chapter describes that transition.Less

Accountable

Don Herzog

in Sovereignty, RIP

This chapter explores attempts to hold sovereign actors accountable in the legal sense. At the same time, the chapter shows that legal accountability is precisely what the classic theory of ... More

This chapter explores attempts to hold sovereign actors accountable in the legal sense. At the same time, the chapter shows that legal accountability is precisely what the classic theory of sovereignty rules out—and precisely what people have struggled for, in episode after episode. It also explores startling cases where mere criticism is reviled as an outrageous affront to sovereignty. These two matters are tied: legal accountability turns out to be another kind of affront. The chapter also addresses accountability in terms of international law and politics. It considers the actions of diplomats in the face of sovereign authority, and also discusses the United Nations under this context.Less

The Ashikaga Emperor

Thomas Donald Conlan

in From Sovereign to Symbol: An Age of Ritual Determinism in Fourteenth Century Japan

This chapter recounts how Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ended the civil war of the fourteenth century, and relied upon ritual mimesis to assert sovereign authority. He gained such influence that he no longer ... More

This chapter recounts how Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ended the civil war of the fourteenth century, and relied upon ritual mimesis to assert sovereign authority. He gained such influence that he no longer needed ritual helpers, and in fact he undermined the Hino family's link to Sanbō’in. He also created a series of structures in the capital, which further consolidated his authority.Less

Divided

Don Herzog

in Sovereignty, RIP

This chapter is about dividing sovereignty. It explores the next criterion of the classic concept of sovereignty—that sovereign authority is indivisible. The chapter illustrates a series of episodes ... More

This chapter is about dividing sovereignty. It explores the next criterion of the classic concept of sovereignty—that sovereign authority is indivisible. The chapter illustrates a series of episodes in which partisans adamantly deny that political authority can be divided. Essentially, it is a tour of episodes where the theory of sovereignty occluded many people's view of valuable political options; and where it also served not as any kind of peace treaty, but actually caused conflict, even war. History has already seen bids to divide sovereign authority, especially in the Founders' embracing the separation of powers and ongoing rivalry between state and federal governments. Dividing political authority is in fact a classic strategy for limiting it.Less

Legality and Legitimacy: The Environmental Challenge

Lorraine Elliott

in Legality and Legitimacy in Global Affairs

The current world order is characterized by continuing loss of ecological services, a paucity of global spending on sustainable development and a disproportionate environmental impact on those who ... More

The current world order is characterized by continuing loss of ecological services, a paucity of global spending on sustainable development and a disproportionate environmental impact on those who are already marginalized. These features raise doubts about both the adequacy and the legitimacy of the rule systems and institutions of global environmental governance. This chapter explores the tension between legality and legitimacy in the global politics of the environment through three over-lapping sites of debate: sovereign authority; rightful membership of the global political community; and the nature of procedures, norms and performance. It concludes that both the legality and legitimacy of environmental institutions and practices rest not just on performance and effectiveness but also on both particular and general notions of consent.Less

On Lingering and Being Last: Aphra Behn and the Deterritorialized Sovereign

in On Lingering and Being Last: Race and Sovereignty in the New World

In Virginia and in Surinam something new is revealed to Aphra Behn's eyes: sovereign authority exists as empty form only — both stories have absent governors — and the disarticulation of power and ... More

In Virginia and in Surinam something new is revealed to Aphra Behn's eyes: sovereign authority exists as empty form only — both stories have absent governors — and the disarticulation of power and embodiment is complete. A kind of spatiotemporal distortion has gripped the entire legitimating apparatus. Janet Todd tellingly describes Behn's frame of mind at the time of her American works as a kind of spatial disorientation: “With the state shuddering [in 1688], she saw that there was really no inside in England, no safe place and she felt in London a similar sense of duplicity and instability to that experienced years ago in Surinam. Everywhere was ‘America’.”Less

Punishment, Violence, and the Court

Leslie Peirce

in Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab

This chapter addresses the matter of punishment and the sometimes vexed relationship between the judge and the local agents of sovereign authority who enforced the law in Aintab. It discusses the ... More

This chapter addresses the matter of punishment and the sometimes vexed relationship between the judge and the local agents of sovereign authority who enforced the law in Aintab. It discusses the related problems of violence and its uses, both by private individuals and agents of law enforcement. The chapter explores the issue of siyaset, describes the treatment of murder in the Aintab court, and argues that the prosecution of crime and the imposition of criminal penalties at the provincial level were largely the work of local people.Less

Excursus: Antifascism and the Nature of Hobbesian Authority

Paul Gottfried

in Antifascism: The Course of a Crusade

This concluding chapter references the theory of knowledge presented by Thomas Hobbes in his magnum opus Leviathan. Hobbes was uncertain whether people who conversed with each other shared the same ... More

This concluding chapter references the theory of knowledge presented by Thomas Hobbes in his magnum opus Leviathan. Hobbes was uncertain whether people who conversed with each other shared the same perception of reality. From his perspective, facts that depend on sensory knowledge are subject to the accidental movement of brain particles and cannot be entirely relied on as a truth source. Because of this problem it seemed to Hobbes that sovereign authority was needed, and not only to prevent the “war of all against all”: such authority would also have to intervene to explain what things signified. Otherwise, we would face endless bickering over the meaning of words, which in some cases could lead to civil strife. In the contemporary world, the chapter argues, the media and to a lesser extent the academy provide the “sovereign authority” that serves to “signify” what things mean.Less

Statehood

Paul D. Miller

in Armed State Building: Confronting State Failure, 1898-2012

This chapter draws from insights on political theory in developing a definition of the state that is flexible enough to cover the diversity of existing states, yet sturdy enough to make useful ... More

This chapter draws from insights on political theory in developing a definition of the state that is flexible enough to cover the diversity of existing states, yet sturdy enough to make useful judgments about when and how states fail. It argues that “the state” has five dimensions to it: a coercive force, a legitimating theory of justice, a provider of benefits and services, an economic actor, and an institution to protect human well-being. Most definitions of the state focus explicitly on the “nation-state” or the “modern state,” as if the definition of government refers only to the extent of territory, temporal location, or socioeconomic circumstances with which the state is associated. The chapter maintains the significance of a general definition that is applicable to any form of sovereign human political authority, in order not to prejudice a theory of state building toward any particular kind of state from the outset.Less

Money

André Orléan

in The Empire of Value: A New Foundation for Economics

Value is treated as a social institution, and money substituted for the Walrasian auctioneer. The outstanding characteristic of real-world markets now comes into view: agents can act individually, ... More

Value is treated as a social institution, and money substituted for the Walrasian auctioneer. The outstanding characteristic of real-world markets now comes into view: agents can act individually, without prior arrangement with other agents, so long as they possess a means of payment for transactions. The conceptual origins of money are explored with reference to the need for liquidity, which through a process of mimetic polarization creates a single standard or currency. Historically, challenges to a prevailing monetary regime have taken the form of currency crises, which amount to a contest over who should hold sovereign authority in a society. On this view a new way of conceiving of economic value becomes possible. Arguments by Simiand, Simmel, and Keynes in favor of an institutionalist conception of money are considered, and the eccentricity of economics in relation to the other social sciences criticized.Less