Islands of Exception : Law, Empire, and Offshore Finance in the Caribbean

This Element explores the colonial foundations and imperial design of offshore finance, arguing that tax havens are not anomalies but central to global capitalism. The Element concludes with a call to abolish the colonial offshore economy and to uplift grassroots movements across the Caribbean that demand transparency, sovereignty, and justice.

This Element explores the colonial foundations and imperial design of offshore finance, arguing that tax havens are not anomalies but central to global capitalism. Centering the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, it shows how colonial legality and geopolitical subordination produced zones marked by a logic of inclusive exclusion, where secrecy, corporate power, and tax injustice are normalized. Drawing on TWAIL and law and political economy, the Element introduces the concepts of colonial state of exception and the corporate citizen as key legal formations of the colonial offshore economy. It examines how secrecy, financial services, and fintech enable corporations to externalize harm and evade accountability, and how tax reforms, like the OECD's Pillar Two and the UN Tax Convention, often reproduce colonial and racialized hierarchies. The Element concludes with a call to abolish the colonial offshore economy and to uplift grassroots movements across the Caribbean that demand transparency, sovereignty, and justice.