Global capitalism and law, and where to find them: Afterword to the Foreword by Karen Alter

Abstract

Abstract In her Foreword, Karen J. Alter paints an elaborate picture of the multilayered relationship between law and capitalism, while at the same time offering important insights into recent developments in international law, international relations, and international history. In this brief Afterword, I will take a step back and reflect on the often-unarticulated theoretical assumptions of Alter’s conceptualization of both law and capitalism. Situating this account within the broader trend of “law and political economy” and “new histories of capitalism,” I argue that understanding the juridical and bureaucratic underpinnings of capitalism does not require us to reduce the latter to the former. In fact, I posit that the centering of lawyers, bureaucrats, and administrators—instead of workers, peasants, or Indigenous peoples—in these new histories of capitalism leads to both theoretical and political impasses.