Nation & Sovereignty

Aisha Sohail
Nation
 The word nation came from the Old French
 word nacion – meaning "birth" (naissance),
"place of origin" -, which in turn originates
from the Latin word natio (nātĭō) literally
meaning "birth".[11]
Definition
 Black's Law Dictionary defines a nation as follows:
 nation, n. (14c) 1. A large group of people having
a common origin, language, and tradition and
usu. constituting a political entity. • When a
nation is coincident with a state, the term nation-
state is often used....
 ...
 2. A community of people inhabiting a defined
territory and organized under an independent
government; a sovereign political state....[1]
Cont’d
 The word "nation" is sometimes used as
synonym for:
 State (polity) or sovereign state: a

government which controls a specific

territory, which may or may not be associated
with any particular ethnic group
 Country: a geographic territory, which may or

may not have an affiliation with a government

or ethnic group
Cont’d
 A nation is a stable community of people formed on the
basis of a common language, territory, history, ethnicity,
or a common culture A nation has also been defined as a
cultural-political community that has become conscious
of its autonomy, unity and particular interests. In 
international law nation is the term for a sovereign state.
 American political scientist Benedict Anderson
 characterised a nation as an "imagined community",[5]
 and Australian academic Paul James sees it as an
"abstract community".
Explanation
 Members of some nations share an ethnicity
(almost everyone in South Korea is Korean, for
example), whereas other nations consist of
ethnically diverse groups of people (the United
Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and
Singapore, for instance). However, the members of
a nation see themselves as connected. Fellow
members are often regarded as part of an extended
family. Many members of a nation take pride in
being a part of something bigger than themselves
as individuals, and they celebrate their nation.
Cont’d
 People disagree about what counts as a nation.
Nationhood sometimes transcends(go beyond)
geographical boundaries. Some groups
consider themselves to be nations, even though
much of the world does not consider them that
way. Kurds, for example, live in Turkey, Iraq,
and Iran, but many Kurds believe they belong to
a Kurdish nation. Also, members of a nation
frequently differ in a variety of ways, including
speaking different languages and participating
in different cultural practices
Sovereignty
 The meaning of Sovereignty is; supreme
power or authority.
 the authority of a state to govern itself or

another state.
Definition by Political Philosophers
 Aristotle ; “Supreme power in the state”
 Blackstone; “it is the supreme, irresistible,
absolute, uncontrolled authority in the state”.
 Duguit; “it is the commanding power of the
state; it is the right to give unconditional orders
to all individuals in the territory of the state”.
 Garner; “Sovereignty is that characteristic of the
state by virtue of the which it cannot be legally
bound except by its own will or limited by any
other power than itself”.
Main Points of Sovereignty
 It is the supreme, unlimited and absolute
power of the state.
 It is the supreme power to make laws and

enforce them.
 Its authority cannot be restricted or

disobeyed by any person or body of person

within the state; nor it obeys any power
outside its boundaries.
Cont’d
 The supreme lawmaking power is itself
unlimited by law; it cannot be legally bound
except by its own will.
 The basis of sovereignty is the use or the

possibility of use of coercive power of the

state to compel obedience to its laws or
commands.
Attributes of Sovereignty
The chief attributes of Sovereignty are:
 Absoluteness
 Indivisibility
 All-comprehensiveness or Universality
 Permanence
 Unity or Exclusiveness
 Inalienability
 Imprescriptibility
Absoluteness or Unlimitedness
 It means that the Power or authority of the
state is absolutely supreme and unlimited
over all persons and associations within its
territory and against all powers and
authorities outside its frontiers
Indivisibility
 Sovereignty cannot be divided. Every state
must have one supreme power in it.
Universality
 Sovereignty of the state is all-comprehensive or
universal. It means that it extends to or
comprehends all persons and associations
within its territories.
 Extra-territorial Sovereignty

 Apparently it’s the one exception to the

Universality of the state; it doesn’t extend to the

diplomatic officials and embassies of the
foreign states within its territories. In reality the
state can take back what it gives in some
circumstances.
Permanence
 Sovereignty of the state lasts as long as the
state continues to exist. The state is a
permanent association ; government is a
temporary organization. The government may
change, but the state continues to exist.
When a king dies another steps into his
shoes, because the state continues to exist.
Exclusiveness
 It is the quality by which there can be only
one sovereign power in a state which is
entitled to be legally obeyed by its citizens.
One sovereign excludes another as said in a
Persian proverb; “ There cannot be two kings
in a kingdom”.
Inalienability
 It means that the supreme power cannot be
alienated or taken away from the personality
of its holder without destroying it.
Imprescriptibility
 It means that sovereignty is not lost even if
its holder doesn’t exercise or assert it for a
long period of time. Once a sovereign is
always a sovereign.
Limitation on Sovereignty
Moral Limitations
 Legally the state is competent to do everything

, but in practice it cannot do many things.

What is legally possible may be morally
impossible. E.g. in Britain, parliament is, “from
the legal point of view”, is the sovereign
legislative power in the state. But it cannot
make laws and the executives cannot enforce
them, if they violate the moral principles and
values upheld by the British people.
Natural Limitations

The sovereign cannot do what is naturally

impossible. For example, he cannot order the
Sun and the Moon to rise as per his wish or he
cannot fix their timings of rise etc.
Human Limitations

There are many things which a sovereign

cannot do; firstly being a human and secondly
he has to deal with other human beings.
Gilchrist has called them “the limits of human
endurance”.
Constitutional Limitations

 Firstly these are due to the written and rigid

constitution and secondly, the provision of
fundamental rights in the constitution and
such other provisions in the written
constitution which the legislature or the
government is expressly forbidden to change.
Limitations of International Law

 International Law, conventions, agreements

and treaties are regarded as another
limitation on the sovereignty of the state.
Two Aspects of Sovereignty
Internal Sovereignty
 Internal sovereignty means the supreme and

final power to command all persons within

the territory of the state.
External Sovereignty
It means the freedom or independence of the
state from any control, compulsion and
interference by a foreign state or power.
State in Crisis
 States sometimes become victims of political
troubles, called revolts, rebellions, coups
d’etat, revolutions, war, and foreign
aggression. In these cases, any of the
aggressors/rebellions overthrown the existing
government and takes control of the whole or a
portion of a state. The state is then in a crisis.
 In such situations of crisis and transition, two
terms “de jure” and “de facto” Sovereignty are
used.
De Jure (by law)
De Jure sovereignty means the authority of
the ruler or government which is recognized
by law as supreme. It is therefore, the legal
sovereign.
 But in times of war, civil war or revolution, it

may not be actually obeyed by all or part of

the people or country.
De Facto (in fact)
 Sovereignty means the authority of the
person or agency which can in fact or actually
compel obedience. So, de jure sovereign has
the right or law on his side, while de facto
sovereign has might or physical force.
Sovereignty in Islam
 Plz refer to chapter 17 page number 208 in
the reference book “Political Science Theory &
Practice” by Mazhar ul Haq. Already sent in
the whatsapp group in pdf format.