New Books Network

Maïa Pal, "Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires, and Capital" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

May 6, 2025

Maïa Pal, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford Brookes University, brings her expertise on early modern empires and international law to the discussion. They explore the interplay between law, empire, and capital, emphasizing the pivotal role of consuls and diplomats in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. The conversation dives into extraterritoriality, challenging conventional views on state and capitalism dynamics. Pal also connects historical jurisdiction to modern digital infrastructure, revealing how past practices shape today's economic power structures.

45:25

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Maïa Pal

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Quick takeaways

Maïa Pal's research reveals the complex interplay between law, imperial expansion, and capitalism in early modern history.

The podcast discusses Pal's multidisciplinary approach to jurisdictional analysis, linking historical legal practices to contemporary international relations challenges.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

Jurisdictional Accumulation: A Scholarly Journey

19min

Exploring Intermediary Actors in Political Economy and the Role of Consuls

3min

Extraterritoriality and Empire

13min

Exploring Jurisdictional Accumulation in Modern Contexts

5min

With rigorous attention to history and empire, Maïa Pal's Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires, and Capital (Cambridge UP, 2020) is a unique analysis of imperial expansion. Through an analysis of ambassadors and consuls in the Mediterranean—and attention to Castilian, French, Dutch, and British empires—Pal's multifaceted conceptualization of jurisdictional analysis gathers together law and capital in the early modern period. A compelling application of political Marxist frameworks, Jurisdictional Accumulation is a multidisciplinary approach to thinking through extraterritoriality and its implications.

Through archival work, theorization, and legal analyses, Pal offers us a novel way to better understand the links between capital, law, and imperial authority.

Dr. Maïa Pal is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford Brookes University. Her research brings together international relations theory, international political economy, and histories of international law, and focuses on early modern overseas consuls, imperialism, and empire.
Rine Vieth is an FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Laval. Interested in how people experience state legal regimes, their research centres around questions of law, migration, gender, and religion.

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