Sovereignty is the right of a political entity to exercise power. Sovereignty vests in a government.
One can also refer to a monarch who rules a sovereign country as a sovereign.
Personal sovereignty and state sovereignty share the concept of supremacy within the geographic boundaries of that sovereignty, in contrast to any obligation to defer to a higher worldly authority.
In international law, the important concept of sovereignty refers to the exercise of power by a state. De jure sovereignty refers to the legal right to do so; de facto sovereignty 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).
Tribal sovereignty refers to the right of tribes or of federally recognized American Indian nations to exercise limited jurisdiction within and sometimes beyond reservation boundaries.
The etymology of the word sovereignty, with origins in the Latin super, conveys the idea of "overness".
In some regions of the world, such as Quebec, the word "sovereignty" has become the preferred synonym for national "independence". Compare the Maori term rangatiratanga.
Sovereignty and federalism
In federal systems of government, such as that of the United States of America, sovereignty also refers to powers a state-government has independently of the federal government.
The question whether the individual states of the American Union remained sovereign became a matter of debate in the USA, especially in its first century:
- According to the theory of J. C. Calhoun, the states had entered into an agreement from which they might withdraw if other parties broke the terms of agreement, and they remained sovereign. Calhoun contributed to the theoretical basis for acts of secession, as occurred just before the American Civil War.
- According to the theory expounded in the Federalist party, the individual states did not, after the formation of the constitution, remain completely sovereign: they retained possession of certain attributes of sovereignty, while others became lodged in the Federal government; while many states existed, only one sovereign survived. Even if the origin was a compact or contract, after the "United States" were formed by a "constitutional act" there no longer existed a mere contractual relation: there existed a state to which all were subject, and which all must obey.
- According to Austin: In the case of a composite state or a supreme federal government, the several united governments of the several united societies together with a government common to these several societies, hold joint sovereignty in each of these several societies and also in the larger society arising from the federal union, the several governments of the several united societies remain jointly sovereign in each and all.
Quotes from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
See also: colonization, globalization, plenary authority see also: concept of 'semi-sovereignty'
Further Reading
Stephen D. Krasner. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
John Hickman and Everett Dolman. 2002. "Resurrecting the Space Age: A State-Centered Commentary on the Outer Space Regime." Comparative Strategy Vol. 21. No. 1, pp. 1-20.