Between Europeans, sovereignty claims degenerated to crude effectiveness tests

Evidence

But this title, as we have just seen, was one of an ultimate and absolute kind and hardly required “consummation.” It could also be added that sovereignty, national sovereignty, was at the core of modern, civilized “European” being, as was property (Kelley, 1984:129-33). Here these qualities of being are revealed as integral only in their opposition to uncivilized “others.” When, however, there are contrary claims to discovered territory between the exemplars of transcendent sovereignty and property, such elevated attributes degenerate to a drab “effectiveness,” the test of effectiveness having been promoted in international law to decide between such competing claims, among other things (Shearer, 1994:145-8). — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 236

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The insight that transcendent sovereign/property claims degrade to mere ‘effectiveness’ only when applied between Europeans — while remaining absolute against the colonized — is a dense, layered observation about legal double standards that rewards sitting with it.