Abstract

The article suggests that A Fragment on Government can be read as Bentham's contribution to the American Controversy. Though the contemporary vicissitudes are never mentioned in the text, Bentham's intellectual relationship with John Lind shows his interest in them. It is argued that Bentham criticizes the political discourses adopted both by the Americans and the supporters of the British Government. Bentham's legal positivism appears to be both a way of interpreting the constitutional aspect of the imperial relationship, and the basis of a new science of sovereignty