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Sovereign Force and Crime‐focused Law at the Cape Colony

Journal of Historical Sociology

Published online on

Abstract

This paper shows how law enables right‐based versions of the sovereign to take root by studying how British sovereignty was fashioned over the Cape of Good Hope since its occupation in 1795. Challenging notions that sovereignty is predicated on an ability to except itself from law, the analysis shows how the emerging Cape sovereign was authored into being through its active insertion into crime‐focused legal practices.