Sovereignty: Prof. Dr. Khalid Manzoor Butt

Sovereignty
Prof. Dr. Khalid Manzoor Butt

Definitions
 Grotius: Sovereignty is the supreme political power vested
in him whose acts are not subject to any other and whose will
cannot be overridden.
 Blackstone: Sovereignty is the supreme, irresistible,
absolute, uncontrolled authority in which the highest legal
power of the state resides.
 Jellinek: Sovereignty is that characteristic of the state by
virtue of which it cannot be legally bound except by its own
will or limited by any other power than itself.
 Willoughby: Sovereignty is the supreme will of the state.
Characteristics of Sovereignty
 Permanence:
 Sovereignty is permanent and continues uninterrupted as long
as the state exists.
 Changes in government do not mean cessation of sovereignty.
 Exclusiveness:
 The sovereign power is exclusive and there is none to
compete with it.
 There can be only one sovereign power in a state which can
legally command obedience of its inhabitants.
 All-comprehensive:
 Sovereignty is universal in character and it extends to all
persons and associations within its territorial limits.
 The modern state does not recognize the existence of any rival
within its jurisdiction.
 The only exception to the universality of sovereignty is the
extra-territorial jurisdiction allowed to embassies.
 Inalienability:
 The sovereignty of the state cannot be alienated.
 The sovereignty and state are essential to each other.
 Indivisibility:
 The pluralists believe in the duality of sovereignty .
 It is asserted that sovereignty is indivisible and division of
sovereignty means destruction of sovereignty.
 Absoluteness:
 The sovereignty of the state is absolute and unlimited.
 It is subject to no legal limitations, either internally and
externally.
 Without sovereignty there can be no state.
Kinds of Sovereignty
 Titular Sovereignty:
 The origin of titular sovereignty goes back to the 17th century.
 It emerged after the emergence of the nation-state.
 By titular sovereignty we mean sovereignty by the title only. It is
another way of saying sovereignty in name or nominal
sovereignty.
 The best example of Titular sovereignty is “British Monarch”.
 Legal Sovereignty:
 The sovereignty of the state may further be looked at from two
point of views; legal and political sovereignty.
 Legal sovereignty is the conception of sovereignty in terms of
law and it refers to that person or body of persons who, by law,
have the power to issue final commands.
 The authority of the legal sovereign is supreme and final over all
individuals and associations.
 Political Sovereignty:
 Political sovereignty is the real power behind the legal
sovereign.
 Political sovereign is not known to law, it is unorganized,
indeterminate, and not even precise.
 In modern representative democracies the political sovereign is
very often identified either with the whole mass of the people
or with the electorate or with public opinion.
 Political sovereignty may then mean the electoral plus all other
vehicles and influences that mould and shape public opinion.
 Popular Sovereignty:
 The doctrine of popular sovereignty is the product of the 16th
and 17th centuries.
 Popular sovereignty attributes ultimate sovereignty to the
people.
 This theory was first hinted by John Locke, was later
expounded by Rousseau and it became the slogan of the French
Revolution (1789).
 Popular sovereignty is referred as the sovereignty of the people.
 Sovereignty of the electorate has no legal basis unless it is expressed
through channels prescribed by the constitution.
 De jure and De facto Sovereignty:
 De jure sovereignty is the legal sovereignty and it has its foundation in
law.
 Its attributes is the right to govern and command obedience.
 But it may so happen that the de jure sovereign may not be able to
command obedience while someone else whose identity may or may
not be recognized by law is actually obeyed. That person or body of
persons who actually exercise power and who for the time being is
able to enforce obedience or to whose commands voluntary
obedience is called the de facto sovereign.
 The de facto sovereign may not be a legal sovereign.
 The de facto sovereign may eventually procure de jure sovereignty
due to success, the passage of time, and establishment of tradition.
Austin’s Theory of Sovereignty
(Monism)
 Austin’s definition of Sovereignty:
“If a determinate human superior, not in the habit of obedience
to a like superior, receives habitual obedience, from the bulk of
a given society that determinate human superior is sovereign in
that society (including the superior) is a society political and
independent”.
 The theory gives following propositions:
 In every community there is some person or body of persons
who exercise sovereign power.
 The sovereign is a determinate person or body of persons.
 The sovereign must not himself obey any other higher authority.
 The sovereign should receive habitual obedience from the bulk
of the community.
 Whatever the sovereign commands is law.
 Sovereign’s power is indivisible.
Pluralistic Theory of Sovereignty
 Laski says that sovereignty is neither absolute nor a unity. It is
pluralistic, constitutional and responsible.
 The Pluralistic theory too establishes certain propositions:
 The parts of the state are as real as the whole. The state is
therefore distributive not collective.
 The distinction between state and government is not real.
 The state is one among other groups which man needs to fulfill
the purpose of his life. Man has other allegiances too which may
conflict with his other allegiances. Some of them even take
priority over his loyalty to the state.
 The state is not in any way a mysterious formation with
supernatural or metaphysical characteristics.
 The state can serve its purpose through good will alone.
 The Pluralistic theory is protest against the elevation of the state

to the mystical heights.
 Pluralism demarcates and limits the functions of the state and
defines its authority.

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Sovereignty

Prof. Dr. Khalid Manzoor Butt

 The Pluralistic theory is protest against the elevation of the state

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