Ep 8: Functional Sovereignty
Guests: Morshed Mannan & Neil Walker Series: Network Nations on GreenPill Podcast Listen: Spotify
A deep dive into functional sovereignty — one of the core concepts of Network Nations — with two scholars who bring legal and constitutional theory perspectives to the question of how communities can exercise meaningful autonomy within and alongside existing state structures.
Key Themes
- The legal and theoretical grounding of functional sovereignty as distinct from territorial sovereignty
- Morshed Mannan’s work on “alegality” — the space blockchain-based governance occupies that is neither legal nor illegal under existing frameworks
- Neil Walker’s constitutional pluralism — how multiple overlapping sovereign claims coexist without hierarchy
- How Network Nations can claim operational autonomy in specific domains without challenging state authority
- The relationship between functional sovereignty and democratic legitimacy
- Practical domains where Network Nations are already exercising functional sovereignty: identity systems, community currencies, mutual aid, dispute resolution
Key People
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Morshed Mannan | Legal researcher, co-author Blockchain Governance |
| Neil Walker | Constitutional law scholar, Edinburgh |
| Primavera De Filippi | Co-host |
| Felix Beer | Co-host |
Key Reading
- Blockchain Governance — De Filippi, Reijers & Mannan (MIT Press, 2024)
This episode is part of the Network Nations series.