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Sovereignty is the exclusive right to have control over an area of governance, people, or oneself. A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics A sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority. Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Book III, Chapter III of his 1763 treatise Of the Social Contract, argued, "the growth of the State giving the trustees of public authority more and means to abuse their power, the more the Government has to have force to contain the people, the more force the Sovereign should have in turn in order to contain the Government," with the understanding that the Sovereign is "a collective being" (Book II, Chapter I) resulting from "the general will" of the people, and that "what any man, whoever he may be, orders on his own, is not a law" (Book II, Chapter VI) – and furthermore predicated on the assumption that the people have an unbiased means by which to ascertain the general will. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century Thus the legal maxim, "there is no law without a sovereign. "

In this model, national sovereignty is of an eternal origin, such as nature, or a god, legitimating the divine right of kings in absolute monarchies or a theocracy. The Divine Right of Kings is a general term that refers to the philosophy and ideas used to justify the authority and legitimacy of Monarchs in Medieval and Absolute monarchy is a monarchical Form of government where the king and queen have absolute power over everything Theocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler

A more formal distinction is whether the law is held to be sovereign, which constitutes a true state of law: the letter of the law (if constitutionally correct) is applicable and enforceable, even when against the political will of the nation, as long as not formally changed following the constitutional procedure. The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is an Idiomatic Antithesis. Strictly speaking, any deviation from this principle constitutes a revolution or a coup d'état, regardless of the intentions.

In constitutional and international law, the concept also pertains to a government possessing full control over its own affairs within a territorial or geographical area or limit, and in certain context to various organs possessing legal jurisdiction in their own chief, rather than by mandate or under supervision. Determining whether a specific entity is sovereign is not an exact science, but often a matter of diplomatic dispute.

Contents

Concept

Sovereignty ("by God" or "by people") must be distinguished from its exercise by branches of government. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. In democratic states, sovereignty is held by the citizenry. Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the State is created by the will or consent of its people, who This is known as popular sovereignty; it may be exercised directly, as in a popular assembly, or, more commonly, indirectly through the election of representatives to government. Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the State is created by the will or consent of its people, who A popular assembly is a localized citizen gathering to address issues of importance to the community This is known as a representative democracy, a system of government currently used in most countries. Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principles of the people's representatives Popular sovereignty also exists in other forms, such as in constitutional monarchies, usually identical in political reality as in the Commonwealth realms. A constitutional monarchy, or a limited monarchy, is a form of Constitutional Government, wherein either an elected or hereditary Monarch is A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their respective Monarch Systems of representative democracy can also be mixed with other methods of government, for instance the use of referenda in many countries. A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita

History of the concept of sovereignty

Basileus is the Greek word for "king," who has auctoritas, the Latin root for authority, which is to be distinguished from simple imperium, also a Latin concept of power, akin to that retained by an archon the ancient Greek equivalent to something like a "magistrate". "Basilissa" redirects here For the saint of this name see Julian and Basilissa. Auctoritas is a Latin word and is the origin of English " Authority " Imperium in a broad sense translates as power. In Ancient Rome the concept applied to People, and meant something like "power Archon (Gr ἄρχων pl ἄρχοντες is a Greek word that means "ruler" frequently used as the title of a specific public office A magistrate is a judicial officer In Common law systems a magistrate usually has limited authority to administer and enforce the Law.

Jean Bodin (1530-1596) is considered to be the modern initiator of the concept of sovereignty, with his 1576 treatise Six Books on the Republic which described the sovereign as a ruler above human law and subject only to the divine or natural law. Jean Bodin ( 1529 / 1530 &ndash1596was born in Angers France and became a French Jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Natural law or the law of nature ( Latin: lex naturalis) is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by Nature and that He thus predefined the scope of the divine right of kings, stating "Sovereignty is a Republic's absolute and perpetual power". The Divine Right of Kings is a general term that refers to the philosophy and ideas used to justify the authority and legitimacy of Monarchs in Medieval and Sovereignty is absolute, thus indivisible, but not without any limits: it exercises itself only in the public sphere, not in the private sphere. Absolute may mean Philosophy Absolute (philosophy, a concept in philosophy Moral absolutes, the belief that there are absolute Public is of or pertaining to the people relating to or affecting a nation state or community opposed to private; as the public treasury a road or lake In Economics, the private sector is that part of the economy which is both run for private Profit and is not controlled by the State. It is perpetual, because it does not expire with its holder (as auctoritas does). In other words, sovereignty is no one's property: by essence, it is inalienable.

These characteristics would decisively shape the concept of sovereignty, which we can find again in the social contract theories, for example, in Rousseau's (1712-1778) definition of popular sovereignty, which only differs in that he considers the people to be the legitimate sovereign. Social contract describes a broad class of republican theories whose subjects are implied agreements by which people form Nations and maintain a Social order Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the State is created by the will or consent of its people, who Likewise, it is inalienable – Rousseau condemned the distinction between the origin and the exercise of sovereignty, a distinction upon which constitutional monarchy or representative democracy are founded. A constitutional monarchy, or a limited monarchy, is a form of Constitutional Government, wherein either an elected or hereditary Monarch is Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principles of the people's representatives Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke and Montesquieu are also key figures in the unfolding of the concept of sovereignty. Thomas Hobbes (born 5 April 1588died 4 December 1679 was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation Charles-Louis de Secondat baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (Eng Italic text

Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) defined sovereignty as "the power to decide the state of exception", in an attempt, argues Giorgio Agamben, to counter Walter Benjamin's theory of violence as radically disjoint from law. Carl Schmitt ( July 11 1888 April 7 1985) was a German Jurist, Political theorist, and professor of Law For the 2005 book see State of Exception (2005. A state of exception is a concept in the legal theory of Carl Schmitt, similar Giorgio Agamben (born 1942 in Rome) is an Italian philosopher who teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia. Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( July 15, 1892 &ndash September 27, 1940) was a German - Jewish Marxist Violence is the exertion of force so as to injure or abuse The word is used broadly to describe the destructive action of natural phenomena like Storms and Earthquakes Georges Bataille's heterodox conception of sovereignty, which may be said to be an "anti-sovereignty", also inspired many thinkers, such as Jacques Derrida, Agamben or Jean-Luc Nancy. Georges Bataille (ʒɔʀʒ baˈtaj ( September 10, 1897 &ndash July 8, 1962) was a French Writer. Jean-Luc Nancy (born July 26, 1940) is a French philosopher. Nancy's first book published in 1973 was Le titre de la lettre

Different views of sovereignties

There exist vastly differing views on the moral bases of sovereignty. These views translate into various bases for legal systems:

The key element of sovereignty in the legalistic sense is that of exclusivity of jurisdiction. In Law, jurisdiction (from the Latin ius iuris meaning "law" and dicere meaning "to speak" is the practical Authority

Specifically, when a decision is made by a sovereign entity, it cannot generally be overruled by a higher authority. Further, it is generally held that another legal element of sovereignty requires not only the legal right to exercise power, but the actual exercise of such power. ("No de jure sovereignty without de facto sovereignty. ") In other words, neither claiming/being proclaimed Sovereign, nor merely exercising the power of a Sovereign is sufficient; sovereignty requires both elements.

Territorial sovereignty

Following the Thirty Years' War, a European religious conflict that embroiled much of the continent, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 established the notion of territorial sovereignty as a doctrine of noninterference in the affairs of other nations. For the Mauritanian Thirty Years' War see Char Bouba war. For the band see The 30 Years War. The term Peace of Westphalia refers to the two peace treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, signed on May 15 and October 24 of The 1789 French Revolution shifted the possession of sovereignty from the sovereign ruler to the nation and its people. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an

Sovereignty in international law

While many purists regard the individual or an individual nation state as the sole seat of sovereignty, in international law, sovereignty is defined as the legitimate exercise of power and the interpretation of international law by a state. As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection For the online game see Jennifer Government NationStates. The nation-state is a certain form of State that derives its legitimacy International law is the term commonly used for referring to the system of implicit and explicit agreements that bind together nation-states in adherence to recognized values and standards The term State has several meanings in law in Private international law and Conflict of laws, State can refer to a well-defined jurisdiction with its own set De jure sovereignty is the legal right to do so; de facto sovereignty is the ability in fact to do so (which becomes of special concern upon the failure of the usual expectation that de jure and de facto sovereignty exist at the place and time of concern, and rest in the same organization). Foreign governments recognize the sovereignty of a state over a territory, or refuse to do so.

For instance, in theory, both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China considered themselves sovereign governments over the whole territory of mainland China and Taiwan. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. Though some foreign governments recognize the Republic of China as the valid state, most now recognize the People's Republic of China. However, de facto, the People's Republic of China exercises sovereign power over mainland China but not Taiwan, while the Republic of China exercises its effective administration only over Taiwan and some outlying islands but not mainland China. Since ambassadors are only exchanged between sovereign high parties, the countries recognizing the People's Republic often entertain de facto but not de jure diplomatic relationships with Taiwan by maintaining 'offices of representation', such as the American Institute in Taiwan, rather than embassies there. An ambassador is the highest ranking Diplomat who represents their country The American Institute in Taiwan ( AIT) serves as the representative office of the United States in Taiwan.

Sovereignty may be recognized even when the sovereign body possesses no territory or its territory is under partial or total occupation by another power. The Holy See was in this position between the annexation in 1870 of the Papal States by Italy and the signing of the Lateran Treaties in 1929, when it was recognised as sovereign by many (mostly Roman Catholic) states despite possessing no territory – a situation resolved when the Lateran Treaties granted the Holy See sovereignty over the Vatican City. The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent Episcopal see of the Roman Catholic The Papal States, State(s of the Church or Pontifical States (in Italian Stato Ecclesiastico, Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa The Lateran Treaty is one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, three agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy Vatican City, officially the State of the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano is a Landlocked sovereign City-state whose territory The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is likewise a non-territorial body that claims to be a sovereign entity, though it is not universally recognized as such. The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ( SMOM) Order of Malta

Similarly, the governments-in-exile of many European states (for instance, Norway, Netherlands or Czechoslovakia) during the Second World War were regarded as sovereign despite their territories being under foreign occupation; their governance resumed as soon as the occupation had ended. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The government of Kuwait was in a similar situation vis-á-vis the Iraqi occupation of its country during 1990-1991. The State of Kuwait ( دولة الكويت IPA [dawlatt̪ alkuwajt̪]) is a sovereign Arab Emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf, enclosed For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics.

Sovereignty and federalism

In federal systems of government, such as that of the United States, sovereignty also refers to powers which a state government possesses independently of the federal government; this is called "clipped sovereignty. A federal republic is a Federation of States with a republican form of government A system of government is a term that refers to the set of political Institutions by which a Government of a State is organized in order to exert its powers The United States of America —commonly referred to as the "

The question whether the individual states, particularly the Confederate States of America, remained sovereign became a matter of debate in the U. S. , especially in its first century of existence:

Likewise, according to the theory put forth by James Madison in the Federalist Papers "each State, in ratifying the Constitution, was to be considered as a sovereign body, independent of all others, and only to be bound by its own voluntary act. The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution. In this relation, then, the new Constitution [was to be] a federal, and not a national constitution. " In the end, Madison likewise compromised with the Anti-federalists to modify the Constitution to protect state sovereignty: At the 1787 constitutional convention a proposal was made to allow the federal government to suppress a seceding state. James Madison rejected it saying, "A Union of the States containing such an ingredient seemed to provide for its own destruction. The use of force against a State would look more like a declaration of war than an infliction of punishment and would probably be considered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by which it might be bound. "Rives, William (1866). History of the Life and Times of James Madison 2. Retrieved on April 2008. International holidays and other major events April 1 - April Fools' Day April 4 - Qingming Festival (Mainland  

In his Report on the Virginia Resolutions, James Madison wrote that "The states, then, being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity that there can be no tribunal, above their authority, to decide, in the last resort, whether the compact made by them be violated; and consequently, that, as the parties to it, they must themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient magnitude to require their interposition. ” Madison even made a dire prediction of what would happen if this was denied, stating that “If the deliberate exercise of dangerous powers, palpably withheld by the Constitution, could not justify the parties to it in interposing even so far as to arrest the progress of the evil, and thereby to preserve the Constitution itself, as well as to provide for the safety of the parties to it, there would be an end to all relief from usurped power, and a direct subversion of the rights specified or recognized under all the state constitutions, as well as a plain denial of the fundamental principle on which our independence itself was declared. "

During the first half-century after the Constitution was ratified, the right of secession was asserted on several occasions, and various states considered secession (including, for example, the Hartford Convention after the War of 1812; in response, not a single state objected on the grounds that such was unlawful. The Hartford Convention was an event in 1814-1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England 's opposition to the war reached The War of 1812 was fought between the United States of America and the British Empire, particularly Great Britain and her North American colonies It was not until later, c. 1830, that Andrew Jackson, Joseph Story, Daniel Webster and others began to publish the theory that secession was illegal, and that the United States was a supremely sovereign nation over the various member-states. Andrew Jackson (March 15 1767 June 8 1845 was the seventh President of the United States (1829&ndash1837 Joseph Story ( September 18, 1779 &ndash September 10, 1845) was an American Lawyer and Jurist who served on Daniel Webster (January 18 1782 &ndash October 24 1852 was a leading American Statesman during the nation's Antebellum Period. These writers inspired Lincoln's later declaration that "no state may lawfully get out of the Union by its own mere motion", based on the premise that "the Union is older than the Constitution or the even states," in effect an assertion that the 1781 confederation had consolidated the states into a single nation. Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 &ndash April 15 1865 the sixteenth President of the United States, successfully led his country through its greatest internal

Opponents of Lincoln's claim argue that the states, in forming the union of the Constitution, each seceded from the prior Confederated union of 1781, thereafter nine of them joined in Constitutional union on June 21, 1788 – when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, thereby establishing it among those nine states as per Article VII; meanwhile other states refused to ratify until various conditions were met – including the addition of the Bill of Rights, ultimately ratifying by 1790. Events 524 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce. Year 1788 ( MDCCLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap A Bill of Rights is a list or summary of rights that are considered important and essential by a group of people Therefore, their argument proceeds, both unions continued to exist in perpetuity between 1788 and 1790 (whereupon the final state of Rhode Island likewise joined the Constitutional union, thus ending the original confederated union. For this reason, the United States could not have been a single sovereign nation at any time prior to the Constitution, if ever.

Miscellaneous

An underdeveloped aspect of sovereignty is individual sovereignty meaning the ability of individuals to have effective control over their everyday lives. Individuals have no genuine sovereignty unless they have secure income sufficient to satisfy basic need and rare is the politics or economics, such as binary economics, which consciously upholds individual sovereignty by guaranteeing that income. Binary economics is a heterodox theory of Economics that endorses both Private property and a Free market but proposes significant reforms to

Sovereign as a title

In some cases, the title sovereign is not just a generic term, but an actual (part of the) formal style of a Head of state. Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a Monarchic or Republican Nation-state

Thus from 22 June 1934, to 29 May 1953, (the title "Emperor of India" was dropped as of 15 August 1947, by retroactive proclamation dated 22 June 1948), the King of South Africa was styled in the Dominion of South Africa: "By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India and Sovereign in and over the Union of South Africa. Events 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom. Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian defeats the Sassanid army in the Battle of Ctesiphon, under the walls of the Year 1953 ( MCMLIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 778 - The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The King or Queen of South Africa was titular Head of state of the Union of South Africa during the state's existence as a Dominion of the A dominion, often Dominion, refers to one of a group of autonomous polities under sovereign authority within the British Empire and The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa " Upon the accession of Elizabeth II to the Throne of South Africa in 1952, the title was changed to Queen of South Africa and Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, parallel to the style used in almost all the other Commonwealth Realms. A Commonwealth realm is any one of 16 sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that each have Elizabeth II as their respective Monarch The pope holds ex officio the title "Sovereign of the Vatican City State" in respect to Vatican City.

The adjective form can also be used in a Monarch's full style, as in pre-imperial Russia, 16 January 1547 – 22 November 1721: Bozhiyeyu Milostiyu Velikiy/Velikaya Gosudar'/Gosudarynya Tsar'/Tsaritsa i Velikiy/Velikaya Knyaz'/Knyaginya N. Events 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate. Events 498 - Kofi Aseidu- After the death of Anastasius II, Symmachus is elected Pope in the Lateran Year 1721 ( MDCCXXI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a N. vseya Rossiy Samodyerzhets "By the Grace of God Great Sovereign Tsar/Tsarina and Grand Prince/Princess, N. N. , of All Russia, Autocrat"

See also

References

External links

Dictionary

sovereignty

-noun

  1. (of a nation) The state of making laws and controlling resources without the coercion of other nations.
  2. (of God) Supreme authority over all things. (Ref. ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords’)
  3. (of self) The liberty to decide one's thoughts and actions.
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