Introduction

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Sovereignty comes from the French word (souveraineté ) which originally meant supreme power. It has departed from this original meaning, and it is now closely related to the concepts of state and government, independence and democracy. The concept of state sovereignty has had a controversial history. Back in the 16th century the idea was that the sovereign who makes the laws cannot be bound by those laws. The King or Queen was the supreme authority. With the advent of the French revolution the idea of sovereignty was transferred to the doctrine of popular sovereignty. The French constitution defined sovereignty as an "indivisible and unalienable power, which belongs to the Nation. No group can attribute sovereignty to itself, nor can an individual abrogate it to himself". This was vested in the nation's parliament. Parliament became the supreme body that enacted laws that were binding on everyone else, but it was not bound by the laws and could change them at will. This fitted a particular system of government, such as that prevailing in Great Britain in the 19th century. =====

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While state sovereignty had an important impact on the development of power relationships within states, its greatest influence has been on the relationships between states. During the 20th century important restrictions on the freedom of action of states started to appear. The Hague conferences of 1898 and 1907 established detailed rules governing the conduct of wars on land and at sea. The covenant of the League of Nations restricted the right to wage war, and the Briand-Kellogg pact of 1928 condemned the recourse to war for the solution of international controversies and its use as an instrument of national policy. These agreements were followed by the Charter of the United Nations that imposed a duty on member states to "settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered", and that all members "shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or the use of force". =====

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As a consequence of this, sovereignty has ceased to to be considered as synonymous with unrestricted power. All states in the United Nations are regarded as being equal. The growth of the democratic form of government imposed important limitations on the power of the sovereign and the ruling classes. The increase in the interdependence between states restricted the principle that might is right in international affairs. It could be said that the state has finally realised that trial by combat is not a just way to settle disputes. The increasing availability of information now makes it difficult for even the most authoritarian regime to hide its actions from the rest of the world community. =====