Globalisation has challenged traditional, state-centred, domestic-oriented notions of sovereignty. New actors, such as international organisations, transnational actors, multi-national corporations, non-governmental organisations, and philanthrocapitalists have emerged to challenge the traditional conception of state sovereignty over domestic policy making. How can we best understand the challenges posed by these new actors to the traditional ways of thinking about domestic state sovereignty? In this thesis, I identify three competing interpretations of sovereignty in the contemporary globalised world – hyperglobalism, scepticism, and transformationalism. I wish to examine which, if any, of these interpretations best captures domestic decision-making processes. To do so, I examine seed sovereignty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using in-depth unstructured interviews and a comparative case-study method, I trace the development of the most recent seed laws in Ethiopia and Kenya. These laws vary in the degree to which they enshrine domestic state sovereignty over seed policy. Why were they worded differently? I also examine a local-level case in Ethiopia where farmers have started growing crops for a multinational corporation yet also continue to engage in traditional seed practices. Why are they doing so? I find that domestic sovereignty is increasingly shared between local, national, regional, and global authorities, but in different ways in different countries and different localities. My research suggests that transformationalism is a useful framework for assessing changes in seed practices in Sub-Saharan Africa and that it has the potential to be applied more generally.