Sovereignty is a legal term signifying the supreme power by which any Suite is governed. Il denotes in ordinary parlance the unrestricted power of self-determination by the individual Stale of its external and domestic affairs.
Austin termed sovereignty as essential, indivisible and illimitable. As a result of the exercise of sovereignty there emerged two legal assumptions in the domain of international law, viz., the independence arid equality before the law of each sovereign State and prohibition to interfere with the external and internal sovereignty of each independent State. “External sovereignty is independent of control from without: internal sovereignty is paramount power over all action within.” (Holland).
The traditional concept of sovereignty has undergone revolutionary chants. It is one of the prerogatives of a sovereign State to enter into treaties with other Stales for their mutual benefit and common interest. But conclusion of treaties of unequal alliance of guarantee in a sense limits the exercise of sovereignty by the imposition of unilateral burden on the weaker party.
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The establishment of United Nations although based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its members, has shifted the emphasis from independence to interdependence of States.
The very idea of independent Stales being bound by international law in their conduct towards cache other, irrespective of their municipal legislation militates against their unrestricted sovereignty.
As Oppenheim observes, “it is being increasingly realised that progress in international law, the maintenance of international peace and, with it, of independent national Stales, are in the long run conditioned by a partial surrender of their sovereignty so as to render possible within a limited sphere, the process of international legislation and, within a necessarily limited sphere, the securing of the rule of law as ascertained by international tribunals endowed will obligatory jurisdiction.”
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The Second World Ware proved that the smaller States, in spite of the bravery and determination of their citizens, were virtually defenseless and could not meet the onslaught of a determined aggressor.
This paved the way for grouping of Stales which while leaving their national independence and sovereignty untouched, merges another pair of their sovereignty with a view to preserving the substance of their sovereignty intact from foreign danger.
The establishment of the League of Nations and the birth of the United Nations in the wake of the Second World War brought about some sort of a union of Stales lo maintain international peace and security and to promote economic and social advancement of all peoples.
“The defence of the 14-Member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” observes Sebastian Heffner, “is now so closely organised that in case of war it would not be any one member-State but the Organization itself which would wage war.
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But the sovereignty of each of the member Slates, remains unimpaired. The United States remains the United States, Britain remains Britain….none of them interfere in any way in the liberty and identity of any other, and this although soldiers and airmen of each are stationed on one another’s territories, train under international commands, and carry weapons produced in countries other than their own.
In this pragmatically way, national sovereignty has been reconciled with that security which the nation Slate in isolation can no longer provide. The defensive international organisation, the grouping of linked sovereign States, has become the characteristic political structure of the mid-20th century.”