Theme Panel: Legitimate People, Legitimate Territory?

Legitimate People, Legitimate Territory? Critical Perspectives on Sovereigntism

The legitimacy of sovereign communities and their right to take unilateral decisions on their civic boundaries (political membership, citizenship) and territorial borders is increasingly put into question in contemporary political theory. This panel assembles analyses of crucial political controversies that are often framed from a ‘sovereigntist’ perspective – irregular migration, land grabbing, and investor citizenship – to highlight the limits of this dogma of democratic sovereignty and to discuss alternative approaches to both membership and territorial politics.

Participants:
Rainer Baubock, European University Institute (Discussant)
Claudio Lopez-Guerra, Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (Discussant)
Cristina Lafont, Northwestern University (Chair)

Papers:
Beyond Sovereign Boundary-making: Cosmopolitan Citizenship Politics
Svenja Ahlhaus, University of Hamburg (Author)

From Closed Borders to No Borders: “the Problem” of Irregular Migration
Anne McNevin, The New School (Author)

Land Grabbing and the Contradictions of Sovereign Territoriality
Anna Jurkevics, Yale University (Author)

Why Place Matters: Place-Specific Duties and Citizenship Rights
Paulina Ochoa Espejo, Haverford College (Author)