Category: Concept Of Sovereignty In Political Theory

Sovereignty is also characterized by its universality or all-comprehensiveness. This quality refers to the universality of sovereign power over the territorial limits of the state. Thus, sovereignty is all-comprehensive and all-pervasive and its power extends over all persons, associations, and things within the territorial limits. We may recall how Hobbes made his sovereign all-pervasive by denying the right to… Continue reading Universality or All-Comprehensiveness of Sovereignty

Inalienability as a characteristic of sovereignty is referred to with respect to the State. It means that the State cannot cede any of its essential elements without self-destruction. If sovereignty is transferred or given away, the very essence of the State and its personality is jeopardized and compromised. Sovereignty and the State stay together. Thinkers… Continue reading Inalienability of Sovereignty

Indivisibility as a characteristic of sovereignty can be said to emerge as a logical deduction of the characteristic of absoluteness. If sovereignty is absolute, it has to be characterized by unity, otherwise it will be logically inconsistent. As Jellinek remarks ‘a divided, fragmented, diminished, limited, relative sovereignty’ is contradictory. If law is the command of the sovereign,… Continue reading Indivisibility of Sovereignty

Theorists like Bodin, Hobbes, Rousseau and Austin have emphasized the absoluteness or illimitability of sovereignty. Absoluteness refers to power which is not restricted or limited by any consideration or authority internally and also externally. The sovereign cannot be limited or restricted by any law, moral or social considerations, customs and historical traditions, the law of nature, natural… Continue reading Absoluteness or Illimitability of Sovereignty

Understood in a legal sense, sovereignty has certain characteristics that define its nature and also its importance in relation to the State. Sovereignty is a special element of the State and its characteristics also define the nature of the State. As our survey of the development of the concept of sovereignty suggests, the following characteristics are… Continue reading Characteristics of Sovereignty

Austin’s theory of sovereignty mainly involves three inter-related propositions—first, the location of sovereignty in a determinate human superior; second, the legal superiority of sovereign authority and the finality of positive law in the form of law as the command of the sovereign; and third, the indivisibility and absoluteness of sovereignty. By the very fact of assigning final legal authority… Continue reading Critical evaluation of Monist theory

While Hobbes and Bentham championed the concept of legal sovereignty, it is John Austin (1790–1859), an English jurist, in whose hand it gets its fullest expression. Furthermore, as Vincent maintains, like Bodin and Hobbes, Austin also identified the sovereign with the State.24 John Austin in his Lectures on Jurisprudence (1832) formulated his concept of sovereignty. According to Garner,… Continue reading John Austin and the Monist Theory of Sovereignty

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), an English utilitarian, is famous for his advocacy of modern legislation. By grounding his theory of ‘Utility’ in the doctrine of ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers’, Bentham assigned the State the task of the promotion and maintenance of ‘Utility’. His two works, A Fragment on Government (1776) and An Introduction to… Continue reading Legalists and the Concept of Sovereignty

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), the French contractualist, is regarded to have contributed to the concept of sovereignty by formulating his doctrine of General Will. The doctrine of General Will, along with Rousseau’s revolt against reason, romanticized and rediscovered the community in contrast to atomic individualism. The General Will grounded in the community became the basis of… Continue reading Jean Jacques Rousseau

John Locke (1632–1704), an English thinker and social contractualist, is not identified with the theory of absolute sovereignty. His understanding of the social contract and the state of nature led Locke to formulate a theory of sovereignty which was different from that of Hobbes. In his Two Treatises of Government (1690) he formulated his theory of social contract… Continue reading John Locke