Law, Settler Colonialism, and “the Forgotten Space” of Maritime Worlds Renisa Mawani Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1; email: renisa@mail.ubc.ca Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 2016. 12:107–31 The Annual Review of Law and Social Science is online at lawsocsci.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-102612-134005 Copyright c  2016 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved Keywords law, colonialism, settler colonialism, oceans, ships, Joseph Conrad Abstract: Law and settler colonialism is not a self-evident, contained, or straightfor- ward field of inquiry. Rather, it uneasily straddles two overlapping bodies of scholarship: legal histories of colonialism and settler colonial studies. In part one, I place these literatures into conversation to trace their contribu- tions, overlaps, and incommensurabilities. In part two, I turn to maritime worlds as a method of speaking across their analytic divides. Here, I consider the Torrens as a system of land registry inaugurated in the colony of South Australia (1858) and as the last clipper ship to be built in Britain (1875). In its recurring and double life, the Torrens offers an illuminating nineteenth- century example of the interconnection and interdependence of land and sea that serves as a useful lesson today. The global exigencies that arise from the past, organize the present, and impinge on the future demand a shift from terrestrial thinking toward the aqueous and amphibian legalities of settler colonial power. 107 Click here to view this article's online features: • Download figures as PPT slides • Navigate linked references • Download citations • Explore related articles • Search keywords ANNUAL REVIEWS Further Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci. 2016.12:107-131. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by 50.68.144.39 on 11/10/16. For personal use only.