Shaina Potts’ powerful concept of ‘judicial territory’ draws attention to the ways US courts have extended jurisdiction over commercial transactions. Potts argues that the extension of judicial territory marked a shift in power from the executive to the judicial branch of the US state and was central to the development of US empire. Potts presents US empire and globalizing capitalism as interrelated and co-constitutive. This response questions how we conceptualize the relations between capitalism and empire, critically inquiring if the framework of US empire is sufficient to explain the dynamics of globalizing and transnational capital today.
