Was the emperor as sovereign allowed to seize the property of his subjects? Was this treated differently in late medieval Roman law vis-a-vis the theory and practice of zabt in Mughal India? How did political sovereignty relate to the church's powers and to trade? How about maritime sovereignty after Grotius? How was the East India Company as a 'corporation' interacting with an Indian Nawab? How did the shogunate negotiate 'sovereignty' in early modern Japan?

This volume addresses such questions through thoroughly researched historical case studies, covering the disciplines of History, Political Sciences, and Law.

Contributors: Nicholas Abbott, Tiraana Bains, Michael P. Breen, Sylvio Hermann De Franceschi, Philippe Denis, David Dyzenhaus, Andrew Fitzmaurice, Joshua Freed, Kajo Kubala, Daniel Lee, Fabrice Micallef, Kenneth Pennington, Mark Ravina, and Cornel Zwierlein.