Sovereignty in Action

Bas Leijssenaar works at the Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His research is focused on theories of sovereignty and constituent power in nineteenth-century and contemporary debates. The aim of his Ph.D.-project, funded by the Research Council Flanders (FWO), is to develop a pluralist conception of constituent power. He is one of four founding members of the Constituent Power Network, an international research network dedicated to the study of constituent power from interdisciplinary perspectives. Neil Walker holds the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh. His main area of expertise is constitutional theory. He has published extensively on the constitutional dimension of legal order at sub-state, state, supranational and global levels. He was Professor of European Law at the European University Institute, Florence (2000–8), and has held various visiting appointments. His most recent books include Intimations of Global Law (Cambridge, 2014) and The Scottish Independence Referendum: Constitutional and Political Implications (co-edited with Aileen McHarg, Tom Mullen, Alan Page, 2016).

• List of contributors; Preface; Introduction: sovereignty in action Bas Leijssenaar and Neil Walker; Part I. Theory in History: 1. Post-sovereignty? Dieter Grimm; 2. When sovereigns stir Neil Walker; 3. The people as popular manifestation Jason Frank; 4. Sovereignty, action, autonomy Raf Geenens; Part II. History of Theory: 5. Liberal governmentality and the political theology of constitutionalism Miguel Vatter; 6. Popular sovereignty: the people's two bodies Pasquale Pasquino; 7. Nations against the people. Whose sovereign power? Olga Bashkina; 8. A positive or negative conception of sovereignty? Marcel Gauchet, Benjamin Constant and liberal democracy Nora Timmermans; 9. Political idolatry: the relation of Schmitt's two claims in Political Theology Stephanie Frank; Index.

'A fascinating collection of essays that explores the systematic and historical dimensions of sovereignty, the concept which distills the polemical claim to unity of modern polities.' Hans Lindahl, Chair of Legal Philosophy, Tilburg University and Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University of London