The long shadow of colonialism and empire draws our attention to the need to re-think the foundational concepts and institutions of the contemporary world. Rather than viewing the post-WWII international order of independent, postcolonial nation-states with distinct legal systems as a given in inquiry, scholars have turned to question how modern empires and colonialism developed, identifying the consequences of these forms of domination for (post)colonial states and societies. This recent turn in sociological and legal-historical scholarship has recast foundational concepts like traditional/modern society, modernity, sovereignty, the rule of law, citizenship, etc. In these intellectual projects, scholars have also trodden new grounds, tracing historical connections and journeys that allow us to see our present (post)colonial world anew. This graduate seminar is designed to cultivate and develop understandings of the ways that the U.S., British, and other empires have shaped the forms and uses of modern constitutions, criminal punishment, race, religion, gender, sexuality, and, more broadly, the “social” and the state. Beginning with classic theoretical statements on empire and colonialism and rethinking paradigmatic events like the U.S. revolution, the course will proceed to unpack the processes and events that established the social contours and dynamics of the U.S., British, and other empires over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will pay attention to the significance of law and race in the political economy of empire and colonialism, and also seek to theorize their workings.