The question of sovereign right has been largely ignored by the Left, in both theory and practice, and the consequences are serious. The USSR's notion of the Communist party as the sovereign body allowed it to be above the law. The concept of hegemony, based on Antonio Gramsci's national model, is inadequate because it does not deal, as does sovereignty, with the global order, the distinction between legitimacy and law, and international recognition. In order to compensate for this lack, Carl Schmitt's concept of the nomos is introduced and given a radical, critical interpretation. This global ordering allows us to emphasize Marx's theory of imperialism, rather than industrial stages, with implications that are crucial for the critique of U.S. policy today and the organization of a global Left.