Competing Sovereignties

Competing Sovereignties provides a critique of the concept of sovereignty in modernity in light of claims to determine the content of law at the international, national and local levels. In an argument that is illustrated through an analysis of debates over the control of intellectual property law in India, Richard Joyce considers how economic globalization and the claims of indigenous communities do not just challenge national sovereignty - as if national sovereignty is the only kind of sovereignty - but in fact invite us to challenge our conception of what sovereignty 'is'. Combining theoretical research and reflection with an analysis of the legal, institutional and political context in which sovereignties 'compete', the book offers a reconception of modern sovereignty - and, with it, a new appreciation of the complex issues surrounding the relationship between international organisations, nation states and local and indigenous communities. Review: The work develops a detailed and convincing account of (post)modern sovereignty that will be of great interest to many, offering a sophisticated and innovative theoretical orientation for thinking in this area. By detaching sovereignty from the state, Joyce's auto-positioned sovereignty offers ways of understanding how and why sovereign claims remain alluring, but ultimately impossible, at both a local and international level. - Daniel Matthews, Birkbeck Law School for Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2014 Richard Joyce's Competing Sovereignties (CS) is a monograph whose argumentative eloquence and intellectual provocation has absolutely emerged as one of the foremost among the last generation of works on modern states sovereignty. - Elia R.G. Pusterla, London School of Economics and Political Science for Swiss Political Science Review (2014) Vol. 20(1)