Property of the People

This paper revisits the theoretical puzzle known as ‘the boundary problem’ so as to explore the challenge that the intricate relationship between democracy and sovereignty poses to migration rights. The boundary problem states that democracy is impregnated with an assumption of sovereignty, the understanding of which is that of the constitution of legitimate authority on the mythical basis of an ‘original people’. Democratic liberalism is the story of how the “naturalness” of certain rights gives rise to a political authority. This raises the question as to why the sovereign state is to be the duty-bearer of the rights of those to whom it is not accountable in light of the social contract that grounds it. The paper pursues this enquiry in two parts. First, I claim that the authority of the state to bar incomers lies at the heart of sovereignty because territorial jurisdiction emanates historically from the late medieval analogy between imperium and dominium. The upshot of this genealogical claim is that the state must abandon its claim to territorial sovereignty if everyone is to be, in principle, part of a political community. Second, I claim that the liberal analogy between territorial jurisdiction and private property is central to sovereignty because property has been conceived as a “natural right” which the sovereign is committed to protect. The upshot of this claim is that liberalism is germane to sovereignty and that sovereignty serves capitalism by excluding those who are not naturally endowed with property rights within a given territory.