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. |
The Definition
of