Archiving Sovereignty. Law, History, Violence by Stewart Motha (USA: University of Michigan Press, 2018, 224 pp., £19.95 (pbk) ISBN 978-0472053865)
In Archiving Sovereignty Motha provides access to an “archive of sovereign violence”; an archive “gathered, mediated, and sustained by law”. The focus here is on the “unsolved violence” concerning several islands in the Indian Ocean region. Motha argues that the law, reflected through judicial decisions, and documents therefore sustains justifications of dominance “by states with imperial histories”.
Archiving Sovereignty is arguably a history book; it “concerns the history-work of law”. Its examination is present; it arches back to the past to grasp the violence still resonating in the present-future. And this is why Archiving Sovereignty needs to be read. This story is about survival, albeit not heroic; it is about suffering, the fixation on myths and the chain production of expendable life.
Read the full review on: Archiving Sovereignty. Law, History, Violence by Stewart Motha (USA: University of Michigan Press, 2018, 224 pp., £19.95 (pbk) ISBN 978-0472053865). Feminist Legal Studies, 28, 2020, 97-99.