Absolute non-interference is impossible, so overlapping jurisdictions are ontologically prior to simple space.

Evidence

John Milbank’s arguments for decentering are different from Connolly’s, and they are linked to a specifically medieval historical experience. His contrast between what he calls “enlightenment simple space” and “gothic complex space” has implications for a Europe of nation-states: “complex space has a certain natural, ontological priority, simple space remains by comparison merely an abstracting, idealizing project… . This is the case because there is no such thing as absolute non-interference; no action can be perfectly self-contained, but always impinges upon other people, so that spaces will always in some degree ‘complexly’ overlap, jurisdictions always in some measure be competing, loyalties remain (perhaps benignly) divided.” — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 869

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgrom’s law merchant reading on overlapping medieval jurisdictions and the plural legal orders of Champagne Fairs.