This course aims to study sovereignty, widely regarded the core concept constitutive of modern state-centric politics and international law. The first part of the course will study the origins of the concept in medieval legal and political thought and its later development in major texts by Bodin, Grotius, Hobbes, Pufendorf, Rousseau, Schmitt, Arendt. The second part of the course will then focus on major interpretive themes associated with the politics of sovereignty, such as territoriality, constitutionalism, and sovereignty in international law. Readings may include studies by Agamben, Grimm, Kantorowicz, Krasner, Kalyvas, Loughlin, Skinner, Stilz, and Tierney.
This is an upper-level undergraduate Theory course.
It is highly recommended that students will have already completed EITHER PS 112a or 112b or an equivalent course in the history of political thought.