Constructing Imperial Authority: The Intersection of British Imperial Constitutional Law and Private International Law

Abstract Historians and constitutional law scholars are starting to uncover the imperial dimensions of the British constitution. But our accounts of the nature of authority in the British imperial context remain incomplete without an engagement with private international law, which played a significant role in conceptualising imperial authority. This article focuses on the forgotten interplay between imperial constitutional law and private international law. It shows how key doctrinal principles of private international law were referenced either as alternatives to or counterparts of key imperial constitutional law principles. Imperial actors would appeal to one or another image of imperial authority constructed by either imperial constitutional law or private international law to gain more autonomy or to tighten control. Far from being a relic of the past, the significance of this history can be traced in contemporary cases and debates about the nature of authority in the UK and its overseas territories.