SOVEREIGNTYBernard D’ Sami

S may be defined as the power of the State to make law and enforce the law with all the coercive power it cares to employ. It is ‘that characteristic of the State in virtue of which it cannot be legally bound except by its own will or limited by any other power than itself’

The modern state claims to be S to be subject to no higher human authority.

The conception of S was introduced into political theory by the French writer Bodin (1530-96) . Defining the State as an aggregation of families and their common possessions ruled by a S power and by reason, he said that in every independent community governed by law there must be some authority whether residing in the one person or several, whereby the laws themselves are estd and from which they proceed.

S is a power supreme over citizens and subjects itself not bound by the laws. Bodin did not carry his theory to its logical conclusions, suggested:

There were some fundamental laws which the sovereign could not lawfully abrogate.

That private property being granted by laws of nature and therefore inviolable therefore the S could not tax the subjects without their consent.

Among the writers who developed the theory may be mentioned Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Bentham.

The importance of Grotius in the development of the theory is that he emphasizes external S i.e. the independence of state from the foreign control.

Hobbes as we have seen made S absolute and located it in the ruler basing his theory on a social contract.

Locke did not use the term S at all in so far as there was a supreme power in the State, it lay with people but normally it was latent.

Rousseau maintained that S belonged to the people. It could be exercised only in an assembly of the whole people. Government was but the executive agent of the general will it had no manner of S.

Bentham agrees that S is unlimited by law but it is not morally unlimited for in practice it is limited by the possibility of resistance and there are conditions under which resistance is morally justifiable.

He urged the necessity for the sovereign to justify his power by useful legislation with the object of promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Austin’s View A in his Province of Jurisprudence determined

(1832) gives the analytical view of sovereignty and law are three fold:

1. In every State there must be a sovereign and the sovereign's power is unlimited and indivisible

2. The sovereign must be clearly located and 3. His commands are laws a law being defined

as a command of the State obliging the subject to do or to refrain from doing certain acts, failure to obey being visited by a penalty.