ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a postcolonial interpretation of US constitutional law as a precondition for understanding the legal foundations of United States global expansionism. Between 1898 and 1901, US law and policymakers developed a new interpretation of the Territories Clause that enabled the US government to annex territories throughout the globe without binding the law and policymakers to treat the new acquisitions as constitutional parts of the United States or place them on a path to admission as a state of the Union. The book explains the context shaping the military annexation of Puerto Rico and ensuing legal debates over the constitutional status of the island. The chapter also focuses on the debates over the relationship between the territorial status of Guantanamo Bay and the US war on terror.
