ABSTRACT
In Tonga, a tiny independent nation-state of 100,000 people in the South Pacific, magistrates daily accomplish a double legitimation of the Tongan state. Both externally, to other nations, particularly European nations, and internally, to Tongan citizens, they legitimate the existence of the Tongan legal system and of Tonga as an independent nation by inflecting their legal actions in court with a distinct Tonganness that can be recognized by outsiders and insiders alike. Other court personnel and users of the courts join the magistrates to construct a local legal hegemony in courtroom discourse that is quite deliberately Tongan.
