Redefinition of Sovereignty in Modern International Law

Abstract

As the most important element in formation of a government, sovereignty has drawn the attention of politicians, jurists, social and even economic theorists. Sovereignty helps the government to be independent, get legal personality and monopoly of violence. Sovereignty principles have been mentioned in article 2(4) of United Nations Charter that forbids the use of force or threat of forcing as well as article 2(7) that prohibits any kind of intervention in internal affairs of governments. Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General had mentioned the responsibility of supporting human rights in the report of “Third Millennium”. Meanwhile, sovereignty emerged as a responsibility. Many doctrines consider any kind of intervention including legitimate and legal as leading to violation of host government sovereignty. By the entry into new areas of international law, the relevant problems to humanitarian intervention and severe economic dependency of governments to each other, many people deny the existence of sovereignty as an objective component in international equations in near future. As the concept of the nation-state is clarified and its modern characteristics are introduced in this paper, this institution will be compared with its sample in the past and finally through some arguments, it will be concluded that not only governments’ sovereignty won’t be weakened or eliminated in contemporary and future world but also it will be more prominent and this is the duty of international law to redefine this concept in modern world.