152, Lauren Benton on "A Search for Sovereignty"

On this edition of Free City Radio listen to a conversation with author Lauren Benton who's book "A Search for Sovereignty." I read this work for a class at Concordia University in Montreal and thought it brilliantly outlined the ways that the violence of early colonial law was improvised by Western European empires over Indigenous lands. The research in this book can be drawn from to illustrate how any claims about the law of colonial society as being solid are simply untrue. It can help to call into the question the fundamental legal basis of colonial nation states like Canada. The work is described this way: "A Search for Sovereignty maps a new approach to 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 original study changes our understanding of empire and its legacies and opens new perspectives on the global history of law." Music on this edition is by @kamarujoseph Free City Radio is hosted and produced by Stefan @spirodon Christoff and airs on @radiockut 90.3FM at 11am on Wednesdays and @cjlo1690 AM in Tiohti:áke/Montréal on Tuesdays at 1pm on @ckuwradio 95.9FM in Winnipeg at 8am on Tuesdays, on @cfrc 101.9FM in Kingston, Ontario at 11:30am on Wednesdays. Now also broadcasting on @cfuv 101.9 FM in Victoria, BC on Wednesdays at 9am. Also Free City Radio is a podcast through both Spotify and Apple Podcasts, please encourage a friend to tune-in !