Rituals of (dis)possession: appropriation and performativity in the early modern law of nations

Abstract

This article makes a contribution to the history and theory of international law by looking at instruments, institutions, and practices of the Spanish Conquest. Instead of analysing the canonical texts of the ‘Spanish fathers’ of the law of nations, as has been done several times in the literature, it focuses on the legal forms of territorial acquisition and analyses the performative character of the ceremonies of possession that served to legalise the Conquest in the early modern political and theological order of 16th century Europe.