Describe the major characteristics of sovereignty.
Answers
(1) Permanence.
(2) Exclusiveness.
(3) All-Comprehensiveness.
(4) Inalienability.
(5) Unity.
(6) Imprescriptibility.
(7) Indivisibility.
(8) Absoluteness or illimitability.
(9) Originality.
(1) Permanence:
Permanence is the chief characteristics of sovereignty. Sovereignty lasts as long as an independent state lasts. The death of the king, the overthrow of the government and the addiction of power does not lead to the destruction of sovereignty.
We should keep in mind the basic fact that the king or the ruler exercises sovereign power on behalf of the state and, therefore, sovereignty lasts as long as the state lasts. The death of the king or the overthrow of the government does not affect sovereignty. This is the reason why people in England used to say “The King is dead, long live the King”.
Dr. Garner has beautifully summed up this idea in the following manner:
“Sovereignty does not cease with the death or temporary dispossession of a particular bearer or the re-organisation of the state but shifts immediately to a new bearer, as the centre of gravity shifts from one part of physical body to another when it undergoes external change”.
(2) Exclusiveness:
By exclusiveness we mean that there can be two sovereigns, in one independent state and if the two sovereigns exist in a state, the unity of that state will be destroyed. There cannot exist another sovereign slate within the existing sovereign state.
(3) All Comprehensiveness:
The State is all comprehensive and the sovereign power is universally applicable. Every individual and every association of individual is subject to the sovereignty of the state. No association or group of individuals, however, rich or powerful it may be, can resist or disobey the sovereign authority.
Sovereignty makes no exception and grants no exemption to anyone. It grants exemptions only in the case of foreign embassies and diplomatic representatives of foreign countries on the reciprocal basis. This does not in any way restrict the sovereignty of the state in the legal sense. The state can abolish and withdraw the diplomatic privileges granted to foreigners.
(4) Inalienability:
Inalienability is another characteristic of sovereignty. Sovereignty is inalienable. By inalienability we mean that the State cannot part with its sovereignty. In other words, we can say that the sovereign does not remain the sovereign or the sovereign state, if he or the state transfers his or its sovereignty to any other person or any other state.
Sovereignty is the life and soul of the state and it cannot be alienated without destroying the state itself. Lieber has very aptly remarked in this connection: “Sovereignty can no more be alienated than a tree can alienate its right to sprout or a man can transfer his life or personality to another without self-destruction”.
(5) Unity:
Unity is the very spirit of Sovereignty. The sovereign state is united just as we are united.