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Analysis Of Legal Spaces Of Empire By Lauren Benton

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Benton, Lauren. “Legal Spaces of Empire: Piracy and the Origins of Ocean Regionalism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History vol.47 no. 4, (Oct. 2005). 700-724 Lauren Benton (a history professor at New York University) discusses the connections between the legal strategies of mariners in the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, while illustrating the divisions between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as separate legal spaces in “Legal Spaces of Empire: Piracy and the Origins of Ocean Regionalism.” Benton hopes to prove in her essay that pirates affected Atlantic legal politics and the relationship between the Mughal Empire and European nations in the early modern era. Benton’s primary sources are predominately court …show more content…

The high seas became a spate legal space by the late seventeenth- century because it was absorbed into the common law in England and the non-specialized mercantile law in the Spanish, Dutch, and French empires. Benton suggests that the legal differences between the Atlantic and Indian Ocean grew due to the flexibility of imperial legal authority. The early eighteenth century saw a surge in piracy and an increase in the prosecution of pirates. The prosecution of pirates altered the legal status of pirates; however, the definition of piracy was not solidified in international law. Benton argues that internationalism materialized due to inter-state agreements about lessening piracy and the desire to implement order in the seas. Benton writes, “The discourse of legal dualism- of lawful and lawless zones- coexisted historically both with a pervasive legal pluralism that recognized non- European law and with a spatially diffuse legal culture that engaged actors from all sides- even ruffians and rogues- and gave rise to novel institutional arrangements” (724). Maritime practices were becoming more globalized due to the relationship between England and the Mughal Empire, the actions of mariners and pirates, and mariners’ manipulation of the divisions between maritime powers. Benton’s main argument is that the circulating legal strategies of mariners and pirates in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the differences between the laws in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean incited the globalization of legal practices as well as affecting the relationship between European nations and the Mughal

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