Sovereignty v. neoliberalism: trial over a treasure

In 2007, a treasure hunting company found a 19th Century shipwreck in the Atlantic, off the coast of Portugal. The company, Odyssey Marine Exploration, claimed property of the shipwreck and its cargo, some 600,000 silver and gold coins. The treasure was probably the most valuable ever found at sea and was the object of litigation opposing two states and 25 individuals, from 2007 to 2012. In a paper published in the journal Political Theory, Yves Winter (McGill University) and Joshua Chambers-Letson (Northwestern University) explain that Spain had to prove the ship was the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk in 1804 while on a mission for the Spanish Crown and, as a result, was a sovereign vessel, preventing anyone from claiming her. In the end, the company had to return the ship to Spain. The authors consider this case an illustration of two overlapping and conflicting rationalities: on the one side, the neoliberal logic of capital and commerce, and on the other side, the logic of sovereign prerogative. "The case is symptomatic of a key paradox in the current global political order," says Yves Winter, an assistant professor of political science at McGill.