sovereign

A person, body, or state in which independent and supreme authority is vested; a chief ruler with supreme power; a king or other ruler in a monarchy.

See also clipped sovereignty

- sovereignty

@ sovereign immunity

A judicial doctrine which precludes bringing suit against the government without its consent. Founded on the ancient principle that "the King can do no wrong," it bars holding the government or its political subdivisions liable for the torts of its officers or agents unless such immunity is expressly waived by statute or by necessary inference from legislative enactment. Maryland Port Admin, v. I.T.O. Corp. of Baltimore, 40 Md.App. 697, 395 A.2d 145, 149.

The federal government has generally waived its non-tort action immunity in the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C.A. No. 1346(8X2), 1491, and its tort immunity in the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. No. 1346(b), 2674. Most states have also waived immunity in various degrees at both the state and local government levels. The immunity from certain suits in federal court granted to states by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

See also foreign immunity

- Federal Tort Claims Act

- Suits in Admiralty Act

- Tucker Act.

@ Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act

Subject to existing international agreements to which the U.S. is a party, and to certain statutorily prescribed exceptions, a foreign nation is immune from the jurisdiction of federal and state courts. 28 U.S.C.A. No. 1601-1611

@ sovereign people

The political body, consisting of the entire number of citizens and qualified electors, who, in their collective capacity, possess the powers of sovereignty and exercise them through their chosen representatives.

See Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 404, 15 L.Ed. 691

@ sovereign power

@ sovereign prerogative

@ sovereign power or sovereign prerogative

sovereign power or sovereign prerogative

That power in a state to which none other is superior or equal, and which includes all the specific powers necessary to accomplish the legitimate ends and purposes of government. Etna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Bramwell, D.C. Or., 12 F.2d 307, 309

@ sovereign right

A right which the state alone, or some of its governmental agencies, can possess, and which it possesses in the character of a sovereign, for the common benefit, and to enable it to carry out its proper functions; distinguished from such "proprietary" rights as a state, like any private person, may have in property or demands which it owns

@ sovereign states

States whose subjects or citizens are in the habit of obedience to them, and which are not themselves subject to any other (or paramount) state in any respect. The state is said to be semi-sovereign only, and not sovereign, when in any respect or respects it is liable to be controlled by a paramount government. In the intercourse of nations, certain states have a position of entire independence of others, and can perform all those acts which it is possible for any state to perform in this particular sphere. These same states have also entire power of self-government; that is, of independence upon all other states as far as their own territory and citizens not living abroad are concerned. No foreign power or law can have control except by convention. This power of independent action in external and internal relations constitutes complete sovereignty

@ sovereignty

The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which any independent state is governed; supreme political authority; the supreme will; paramount control of the constitution and frame of government and its administration; the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived; the international independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign dictation; also a political society, or state, which is sovereign and independent. The power to do everything in a state without accountability,-to make laws, to execute and to apply them, to impose and collect taxes and levy contributions, to make war or peace, to form treaties of alliance or of commerce with foreign nations, and the like. Sovereignty in government is that public authority which directs or orders what is to be done by each member associated in relation to the end of the association. It is the supreme power by which any citizen is governed and is the person or body of persons in the state to whom there is politically no superior. The necessary existence of the state and that right and power which necessarily follow is "sovereignty." By "sovereignty" in its largest sense is meant supreme, absolute, uncontrollable power, the absolute right to govern. The word which by itself comes nearest to being the definition of "sovereignty" is will or volition as applied to political affairs. City of Bisbee v. Cochise County, 52 Ariz. 1, 78 P.2d 982, 986

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