SOVEREIGNTY.
The supreme,
absolute,
and
uncontrollable
power by
which any
independent
state is
governed;
supreme
political
authority;
paramount
control of
the
constitution
and frame of
government
and its
administration;
the
self-sufficient
source of
political
power, from
which all
specific
political
powers are
derived; the
international
independence
of a state,
combined
with the
right and
power of
regulating
its internal
affairs
without
foreign
dictation;
also a
political
society, or
state, which
is sovereign
and
independent.
See Chisholm
v. Georgia,
2 Dall. 455,
1 L. Ed.
440; Union
Bank, v.
Hill, 3
Cold.
(Tenn.) 325;
Moore v.
Shaw, 17
cal. 218, 79
Am. Dec.
123; State
v. Dixon,
213 P. 227,
66 Mont. 76.
(Emphasis
added)
The
power to do
everything
in a state
without
accountability,
- to make
laws, to
execute and
to apply
them, to
impose and
collect
taxes and
levy
contributions,
to make war
or peace, to
form
treaties of
alliance or
of commerce
with foreign
nations, and
the like.
Story,
Const. §
207.
"Political
sovereignty
is the
assertion of
self
determinate
will of the
organic
people, and
in this is
the
manifestation
of its
freedom.
It is in and
through the
determination
of its
sovereignty
that the
order of the
nation is
constituted
and
maintained."
Aust. Jur.
SOVEREIGN
STATES.
States
whose
subjects or
citizens are
in the habit
of obedience
to them, and
which are
not
themselves
subject to
any other
(or
paramount)
state in any
respect.
The state is
said to be
semi-sovereign
only, and
not
sovereign,
when in any
respect of
respects it
is liable to
be
controlled
(like
certain of
the states
in India) by
a paramount
government,
(e. g., by
the British
empire.)
Brown. "In
the
intercourse
of nations,
certain
states have
a position
of entire
independence
of others,
and can
perform all
those acts
which it is
possible for
any state to
perform in
this
particular
sphere.
These same
states have
also entire
power of
self
government;
that is, of
independence
upon all
other states
as far as
their own
territory
and citizens
not living
abroad are
concerned.
No foreign
power of law
can have
control
except by
convention.
This power
of
independent
action in
external and
internal
relations
constitutes
complete
sovereignty."
Wools. Pol.
Science, I.
204. |
