Sovereignty -Kinds of Sovereignty

Sovereignty is a juristic concept meaning supreme and final power. It means the highest of the supreme authority. It also denotes that none is above or beyond it, and everyone has to abide by it. Sovereignty is a very popular concept in the modern world, as various powers are trying to dominate the world order, which violates the concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty has different kinds like Legal and political sovereignty, popular sovereignty, etc. Kinds of Sovereignty are as follows:

Also Read: Liberty in the Modern World

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Legal and Political Sovereignty

Legal sovereignty means the interpretation of its power and authority in the formal sense of law and the person or institution who is supreme legal authority in the state is termed as sovereign. The legal sovereign has legal sanctity and its orders and laws it passed are followed by all and sundry. For example, the King-in-Parliament in England. Dicey has observed that ‘behind the sovereign which lawyer recognizes, there is another sovereign to whom the legal sovereign must bow’.

This ‘another sovereign to whom…’ is termed as the political sovereign. Political sovereignty is difficult to pinpoint or traceable to a definite body or person. It is ‘vague and indeterminate’. The person or the electorate is a very vast entity, too vague or determinate to trace out.

Popular Sovereignty

In popular sovereignty, people are considered real sovereigns of the state. It is the basic premise of democracy and it is cornerstone of the democracy. Popular sovereignty was first mentioned in the works of Cicero of ancient Rome but it was embodied by Locke and Rousseau as ultimate sovereignty. This was universally acclaimed during the American and French Revolutions. And hence, the idea of popular sovereignty got momentum during the revolutions of respective countries.

De Jure and De Facto Sovereignty

The De Jure sovereign is a legal sovereign as it got legal sanction and has the competent power to issue command and law that must be followed by all and sundry, regarded as the highest command of the state authority. De Facto sovereignty is the power that challenges the authority of the de jure sovereign or if this emerges more than one centre of power. This generally happens at the time of revolution or change or civil war, when there emerges more than one claimant of sovereignty.

Bryce said that ‘the person or body of persons who can make him or there will prevail whether with law or against the law: he or they, is the de facto ruler, the person to whom obedience is paid’. The de facto sovereignty is said to have its foundation in the force, physical or spiritual, or any other extra-law aspect. There are many occasions when both de facto and de jure emerge.

However, such a situation is very fluid, it may result in either de facto becoming de jure sovereign when it gets recognition through election or any other method. Garner wrote that ‘On account of the manifest advantages which flow from the exercise of power resting on the strict legal right rather than upon physical force, the new sovereign sometimes has his de facto claim converted into a legal right by election or ratification’.

Hence, sovereignty also changes its character as per the nature of the rights people enjoy in any country.