New Books in Critical Theory

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

May 7, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Maïa Pal, a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford Brookes University, dives into her groundbreaking work on imperial history. She explores the nuanced relationships between law, empires, and capital during the early modern period. Discussions center around jurisdictional accumulation, shedding light on the roles of sub-sovereign actors like Mediterranean consuls. Pal also connects historical legal frameworks to contemporary issues, revealing how past dynamics influence today's capitalism and imperialism.

45:25

Episode guests

Maïa Pal

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Quick takeaways

Maïa Pal's work critically examines how law and capital historically interconnect within various early modern empires, reshaping our understanding of jurisdictional power.

The concept of jurisdictional accumulation reveals the distinct authority strategies employed by empires, emphasizing jurisdiction as a separate form of power beyond mere economic influence.

Deep dives

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Intro

2min

Jurisdictional Accumulation and Historical Law

10min

Jurisdictional Accumulation in Early Modern Empires

9min

Exploring Agency: The Role of Sub-Sovereign Actors in Mediterranean Politics

4min

Extraterritoriality and Jurisdictional Accumulation

18min

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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