In Judicial Territory, Shaina Potts reveals how the American
empire has benefitted from the post-World War II expansion of United
States judicial authority over the economic decisions of postcolonial
governments. Introducing the term “judicial territory” to refer
to the increasingly transnational space over which US courts wield
authority, Potts argues that law is an essential tool for US
geopolitical and economic interests. Through close examination of
cases involving private US companies, on the one hand, and foreign
state-owned enterprises, nationalizations, and sovereign debt, on the
other, she shows that technical changes relating to the treatment of
foreign sovereigns in domestic US law allowed the United States to
extend its purview over global financial and economic relations,
including many economic decisions of foreign governments. Throughout,
Potts argues, US law has not become divorced from territoriality but
instead actively remapped it; and it has not merely responded to
globalization, but actively produced it—making the whole world part
of US economic space in the process.