Law, Power, and the Sovereign State

Law, Power, and the Sovereign State
Author: Michael Ross Fowler
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780271039114

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet bloc, it is timely to ask what continuing role, if any, the concept of sovereignty can and should play in the emerging &"new world order.&" The aim of Law, Power, and the Sovereign State is both to counter the argument that the end of the sovereign state is close at hand and to bring scholarship on sovereignty into the post-Cold War era. The study assesses sovereignty as status and as power and examines the issue of what precisely constitutes a sovereign state. In determining how a political entity gains sovereignty, the authors introduce the requirements of de facto independence and de jure independence and explore the ambiguities inherent in each. They also examine the political process by which the international community formally confers sovereign status. Fowler and Bunck trace the continuing tension of the &"chunk and basket&" theories of sovereignty through the history of international sovereignty disputes and conclude by considering the usefulness of sovereignty as a concept in the future study and conduct of international affairs. They find that, despite frequent predictions of its imminent demise, the concept of sovereignty is alive and well as the twentieth century draws to a close.

The Right of Sovereignty

The Right of Sovereignty
Author: Daniel Lee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-08-31
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0191072044

Sovereignty is the vital organizing principle of modern international law. This book examines the origins of that principle in the legal and political thought of its most influential theorist, Jean Bodin (1529/30-1596). As the author argues in this study, Bodin's most lasting theoretical contribution was his thesis that sovereignty must be conceptualized as an indivisible bundle of legal rights constitutive of statehood. While these uniform 'rights of sovereignty' licensed all states to exercise numerous exclusive powers, including the absolute power to 'absolve' and release its citizens from legal duties, they were ultimately derived from, and therefore limited by, the law of nations. The book explores Bodin's creative synthesis of classical sources in philosophy, history, and the medieval legal science of Roman and canon law in crafting the rules governing state-centric politics. The Right of Sovereignty is the first book in English on Bodin's legal and political theory to be published in nearly a half-century and surveys themes overlooked in modern Bodin scholarship: empire, war, conquest, slavery, citizenship, commerce, territory, refugees, and treaty obligations. It will interest specialists in political theory and the history of modern political thought, as well as legal history, the philosophy of law, and international law.

From Popular Sovereignty to the Sovereignty of Law

From Popular Sovereignty to the Sovereignty of Law
Author: Martin Ostwald
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 687
Release: 2023-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520909682

Analyzing the "democratic" features and institutions of the Athenian democracy in the fifth century B.C., Martin Ostwald traces their development from Solon's judicial reforms to the flowering of popular sovereignty, when the people assumed the right both to enact all legislation and to hold magistrates accountable for implementing what had been enacted.

Sovereignty, Knowledge, Law

Sovereignty, Knowledge, Law
Author: Panu Minkkinen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2009-05-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1134028598

Sovereignty, Knowledge, Law investigates the notion of sovereignty from three different, but related perspectives: as a legal question in relation to the sovereign state, as a political question in relation to sovereign power, and as a metaphysical question in relation to sovereign self-knowledge. The varied and interchangeable uses of legal sovereignty, political sovereignty and metaphysical sovereignty in contemporary debates have resulted in a situation where the word ‘sovereignty’ itself has become something of a non-concept. Panu Minkkinen shows here how these three perspectives have informed one another, by addressing their shared relationship to law, and to the ‘autocephalous’ function of sovereignty; that is, the attempt to provide a single source and foundation for law, power, and self-knowledge. Through an effort to domesticate the intrinsically ‘heterocephalous’ nature of power, the juridical and jurisprudential aim has been to confine power within the closed vertical hierarchy of traditional legal thinking. Sovereignty, Knowledge, Law thus elaborates this heterocephaly, proposing new understandings of sovereignty, as well as of law and of legal scholarship.

Rousseau, Law and the Sovereignty of the People

Rousseau, Law and the Sovereignty of the People
Author: Ethan Putterman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2010-04-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521765382

Examines Rousseau's contribution as a constitutionalist and builder of institutions, relating his major ideas to twenty-first century debates.

Concepts of State, Sovereignty, and International Law

Concepts of State, Sovereignty, and International Law
Author: Johannes Mattern
Publisher: Lawbook Exchange, Limited
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781584779186

"A Book Which Every Student of the Theory of Sovereignty Must Read" Mattern illuminates his subject through a rich historical survey ranging from Bodin and Hobbes to Laski, Kelsen and Willoughby. "Dr. Mattern's book is a contribution of value to the theory of sovereignty. (...) [He] has written a book which every student of the theory of sovereignty must read: it and Professor Hsiao's are the two most useful expositions of which the reviewer knows." George E.G. Catlin, Cornell Law Quarterly 14 (1928-29) 409-411. xix, 200 pp.

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution

Sovereignty, International Law, and the French Revolution
Author: Edward James Kolla
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2017-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107179548

This book argues that the introduction of popular sovereignty as the basis for government in France facilitated a dramatic transformation in international law in the eighteenth century.

Property and Sovereignty

Property and Sovereignty
Author: Professor James Charles Smith
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 483
Release: 2014-01-28
Genre: Law
ISBN: 140948470X

This book explores the relationships between property and the concept of sovereignty from a number of different perspectives. It distinguishes between the dual meaning of 'sovereignty' in property discourse - political sovereignty and owner sovereignty. The contributors discuss the nature of sovereignty in both senses, applying it to a wide range of topics such as the evolution of property rights in fragile and conflict-affected nation states, and notions of sovereign property in new worlds. A section on the Arts illuminates the relationships between property, sovereignty, and culture, and a further section investigates regulatory property and governmental control over resources. The book concludes with an exploration of sovereign shaping of private property entitlements to achieve instrumental ends. This interesting collection will be valuable to those in the fields of legal philosophy, property theory, international and comparative law, and political sociology. This book explores the relationships between property and the concept of sovereignty from a number of different perspectives. It distinguishes between the dual meaning of ‘sovereignty’ in property discourse - political sovereignty and owner sovereignty. The contributors discuss the nature of sovereignty in both senses, applying it to a wide range of topics such as the evolution of property rights in fragile and conflict-affected nation states and notions of sovereign property in new worlds. A section on The Arts illuminates the relationships between property, sovereignty and culture and a further section investigates regulatory property and governmental control over resources. The book concludes with an exploration of sovereign shaping of private property entitlements to achieve instrumental ends. This interesting collection will be valuable to those in the fields of legal philosophy, property theory, international and comparative law, and political sociology.

Technology, Sovereignty and International Law

Technology, Sovereignty and International Law
Author: Francis Lyall
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2022-03-10
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1000553760

The dogma of the sovereignty of the state, deriving from the Peace of Westphalia, underpins much of the modern-day international system. However, developments in recent technology have led this ideology to depart from reality. Viewing state sovereignty through the prism of public international law, the book will begin with an overview of the settlement of Westphalia, how it has influenced international documents ever since, and how the advantages of centralised decisions came to be perceived. By surveying the Law of the Sea, Maritime Law, Air and Aviation, Telecommunications, Postal Services, Space Law and Mensuration, the book demonstrates how, in each, the interplay between state sovereignty and developing technologies have caused significant legal change. Some changes, Lyall argues, such as international measures of time and geography, have been born out of convenience, facilitated by technology developed for the purpose. Other areas of change developed out of a desire to reconcile conflicts or harmonise necessary state regulation. The book analyses the reasons behind these changes and discusses the ongoing attempts to balance state equality, measures adopted by new institutions to secure comprehensive representation. It ends by looking to the future of state sovereignty in an increasingly globalised world. The book is of use to any student or scholar interested in policy making, international law and international affairs, both legal and scientific, as well as those looking at legal administrative issues and government officiation.