ABSTRACT
Chapter 1, “The Speaking Sovereign,” outlines the paradox of constituent power and considers whether it can be solved by a declaration of independence. The paradox of constituent power arises because the “voice of the people” is thought to precede law yet remains inarticulate without it, while constitutionalism struggles to account for its own origins without popular sovereignty. As proto-legal founding speech, a properly authorized declaration of independence looks like the answer to this paradox, and new states regularly use one to mark their arrival in the world. Declarations of independence have incomplete legal qualities and are generally taken to be a kind of performative utterance. Performatives play upon prevailing structures of power for their operation, making them an awkward fit for speech that takes place before authority is stabilized. If performatives are ill-suited to the conditions of a founding, then what is actually happening in a declaration of independence? By taking founding documents and their historical conditions as a starting point, the chapter previews how the book explores these events to consider how speech works at a founding.
