Judicial Territory: Law, Capital and the Expansion of American Empire
Shaina Potts, Associate Professor, Geography and Global Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Thursday, May 22, 20254:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Bunche Hall, Room 10383 & ZOOM (Webinar)
11282 Portola Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90095
ABOUT THE EVENT
This event will be a hybrid event. It will take place in-person as well as virtually. See the address above for the in-person event location.
If you register for and attend a Burkle Center virtual event, you will not be seen or heard via video or audio. We will live-stream this event on the Burkle Center’s YouTube page. The YouTube livestream will be available below at the start of the event.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In Judicial Territory, Shaina Potts reveals how the American empire has benefited from the post-World War II expansion of United States judicial authority over the economic decisions of postcolonial governments. Introducing the term “judicial territory” to refer to the increasingly transnational space over which US courts wield authority, Potts argues that law is an essential tool for US geopolitical and economic interests. Through close examination of cases involving private US companies, on the one hand, and foreign state-owned enterprises, nationalizations, and sovereign debt, on the other, she shows that technical changes relating to the treatment of foreign sovereigns in domestic US law allowed the United States to extend its purview over global financial and economic relations, including many economic decisions of foreign governments. Throughout, Potts argues, US law has not become divorced from territoriality but instead actively remapped it; it has not merely responded to globalization, but actively produced it—making the whole world part of US economic space in the process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shaina Potts is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and at the International Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is an economic, legal, and political geographer with a focus on the articulation of transnational political economy, geopolitics, and law.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
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Margaret Peters is Associate Director of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Chair of the Global Studies major at UCLA. She is also a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research on the political economy of migration. She is currently working on a book project on how the process of forced displacement affects migrants’ sense of dignity and how these dignity concerns affect decisions of whether to move from the crisis zone, where to move, and when to return. She is additionally writing a book on how dictators use migration, including forced migration, to remain in power. Her award-winning book, Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization, argues that the increased ability of firms to produce anywhere in the world combined with growing international competition due to lowered trade barriers has led to greater limits on immigration, as businesses no longer see a need to support open immigration at home.
ORDER THE BOOK IN ADVANCE (it will also be sold at the event)
Judicial Territory: Law, Capital and the Expansion of American Empire is available via Duke University Press.
Sponsor(s): Burkle Center for International Relations, Department of Political Science