Importance of Sovereignty

The definition of sovereignty tells us about the freedom of a people above all things.- We conceptually define sovereignty as the right that a people or a nation has to be able to Choose their Government, also having interference in the Publication of Laws and the respect of the same in what is known as National Territory, this being the jurisdiction of the same and the application of its different regulations.

Sovereignty, however, is not limited to the ability to decide on political matters, but extends to issues such as the possession of territory considered sovereign, the decision on economic issues that can be voted or plebiscited among the entire town.

Also in cultural and ideological matters we can find the concept of sovereignty when we talk about a people that does not allow the entry of the famous globalizing invasion and defends its traditions and cultural phenomena. In other words, sovereignty is the ability of a people to decide on itself without allowing the interference of other peoples, rulers or alliances that may affect it.

Origin of the concept of sovereignty and thinkers who shaped it over time

This conception is born properly from the origin of Law, considering as such the exercise of laws, their application on a determined framework and the form of execution of the same, having as a necessity the Establishment of Sovereignty, being therefore derived the action of the Power that allows to give a role of Rights and Obligations for them. Here we can mention then that sovereignty is understood from the legal framework that a Constitution or set of laws gives a self-determined people to make decisions about their problems without any external agent intervening in them.

The classic definition made by Jean Bodin establishes as such the Perpetual and Absolute Power that a Republic possesses as a form of government, granting itself for one case the power to Take Decisions, in addition to being able to issue laws without depending on Foreign Laws created and promulgated by agencies foreign to the nation, with the clear exception of Natural Law (also called Law Divine)

The first conceptions of sovereignty come from times long before Roman Law and even Canon Law, laying its foundations in the times of the Middle Ages, in which three great powers were debated, which were the great Empires, the appearance of Feudal Lords and on the other hand the Church, having to a lesser extent the participation of Corporations that bid for the exercise of different regulations according to the rights where they sought the Exercise of Can.

Sovereignty during monarchy and sovereignty during democracy

Although we have mentioned the Republic as an example of a government that has its Sovereignty, it is also possible to find this concept in Absolute Monarchies, being found as the exercise of the same to the King or Monarch, being for this reason treated under the name of Sovereign, even being considered as a synonym of the same.

In contrast to this, and through Suffrage as an exercise of the Democratic System, it is considered that sovereignty belongs precisely to the people, reinforcing this concept under the methodology of Universal Suffrage and the laws that support and protect the Democracy.

In any of the two cases, both in the monarchical and in the democratic form, sovereignty can be called into question when two nations or peoples go to war and this supposes the advance of one over the other, that is to say, the temporary annulment of the sovereignty of a town. In practice, companies are complex and difficult to control and it often happens that they are not internationally recognized rights are fully respected and the will of the most. This happens every time a nation decides to invade the territory of another nation, be it militarily, economically, or culturally.

In any of these cases we are talking about invasion and annulment of sovereignty, a serious problem that means the beginning of a war or tension between two countries. Although these attitudes are often condemned internationally, the reality is that they are part of the very complexity of being human and we should to be able to establish frameworks of respect for international laws that seek the pre-eminence of the sovereignty of all the territories of the planet.

Images: iStock. Katarzyna Bialasiewicz / Eduardo Luzzatti