Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500-1850 PDF
Preview Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500-1850
Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500–1850 This page intentionally left blank Legal Pluralism and Empires, 1500–1850 Edited by Lauren Benton and Richard J. Ross a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2013 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Legal pluralism and empires, 1500-1850 / edited by Lauren Benton and Richard J. Ross. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8147-7116-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8147-0836-1 (paperback : alk. paper) 1. Colonies—Law and legislation—Congresses. 2. Legal polycentricity—Congresses. I. Benton, Lauren A., editor of compilation. II. Ross, Richard Jeffrey, editor of compilation. K3375.A6L44 2013 342’.04130903—dc23 2013001060 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, a nd their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To our parents: Charlotte Benton and (in memoriam) George Benton and Leonard Ross and Lorraine Ross This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Empires and Legal Pluralism: Jurisdiction, Sovereignty, and Political Imagination in the Early Modern World 1 Lauren Benton and Richard J. Ross Part I: Composite Polities across Empires 2 “Bundles of Hyphens”: Corporations as Legal Communities in the Early Modern British Empire 21 Philip J. Stern 3 Litigating Empire: The Role of French Courts in Establishing Colonial Sovereignties 49 Helen Dewar Part II: Political and Religious Imagination 4 Aspects of Legal Pluralism in the Ottoman Empire 83 Karen Barkey 5 Reconstructing Early Modern Notions of Legal Pluralism 109 Richard J. Ross and Philip J. Stern 6 Between Justice and Economics: “Indians” and Reformism in Eighteenth-Century Spanish Imperial Thought 143 Brian P. Owensby Part III: Constructing Imperial Jurisdiction 7 Magistrates in Empire: Convicts, Slaves, and the Remaking of the Plural Legal Order in the British Empire 173 Lauren Benton and Lisa Ford 8 “Seeking the Water of Baptism”: Fugitive Slaves and Imperial Jurisdiction in the Early Modern Caribbean 199 Linda M. Rupert >> vii viii << Contents 9 “A Pretty Gov[ernment]!”: The “Confederation of United Tribes” and Britain’s Quest for Imperial Order in the New Zealand Islands during the 1830s 233 P. G. McHugh Part IV: Concluding Perspectives 10 Laws’ Histories: Pluralisms, Pluralities, Diversity 261 Paul D. Halliday 11 Rules of Law, Politics of Empire 279 Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper About the Contributors 295 Index 299 Acknowledgments This volume developed out of a 2010 conference on “New Perspectives on Legal Pluralism” organized by Lauren Benton and Richard Ross through the Symposium on Comparative Early Modern Legal History. Richard Ross oversees the Symposium, which gathers each year under the auspices of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago to dis- cuss the comparative legal history of the Atlantic world in the period c. 1492 to 1815. Proliferating scholarship on the layered, jurisdictionally complex, and multicentric nature of law in overseas empires suggested the value of a conference assessing legal pluralism in colonial settings. The rich papers presented at the “New Perspectives on Legal Pluralism” symposium, together with the valuable conversation they inspired among participants, prompted the organizers to think of assembling a volume on the subject. The editors wished to produce a volume that studied the provenance, meaning, and implications of legal pluralism across a wide range of early modern empires, in settings as far apart as Peru and New Zealand, and in every century between 1500 and the middle of the nineteenth century. To that end, we drew from contributions by participants in the symposium and also invited other scholars to write for the volume. Karen Barkey, Linda Rupert, Philip Stern, and P. G. McHugh presented papers at the symposium that subsequently became chapters in this volume. Lauren Benton, Helen Dewar, Lisa Ford, Brian Owensby, and Richard Ross contributed chapters written especially for the volume. We were lucky to recruit Jane Burbank, Frederick Cooper, and Paul Halliday to write chapters presenting concluding perspectives. The editors wish to thank the authors for their essays. All undertook revi- sions with dedication, care, and good humor. Several anonymous commen- tators for New York University Press suggested ways to improve the fram- ing of the volume. Deborah Gershenowitz, the history and law editor at the press, expertly guided the book through the publication process. The Uni- versity of Illinois College of Law provided funding for the conference out of which this volume emerged. Funds for promoting the study of legal history at New York University contributed to covering the costs of preparing the manuscript for publication. The Center for Renaissance Studies at the New- berry Library offered an ideal site for the proceedings. >> ix
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