State Sovereignty as a Legal Status

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Abstract

State sovereignty is a sensitive and controversial concept in international law that has been described as ‘lacking meaningful specific content’ but also as ‘the basic constitutional doctrine’ of international law. One way of analysing legal concepts is by means of an inferential analysis: such an analysis looks to the inferential relationships of a concept in order to determine its meaning. This contribution offers a non-exhaustive inferential analysis of State sovereignty and suggests considering sovereignty in international law as a legal status that is independent of the legal consequences attaching to it. This view of sovereignty reveals a number of open questions regarding sovereignty and supports the conclusion that sovereignty is not a matter of degree (sovereign equality), unlimited or impervious to change.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCzech Yearbook of International Law
Subtitle of host publicationState Sovereignty
EditorsAlexander Belohvlávek, Nadezda Rozehnalová
Place of PublicationThe Hague
PublisherLex Lata
Chapter16
Pages311-331
Number of pages20
VolumeX
ISBN (Print)978-90-824603-9-1
Publication statusPublished - 2019

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