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Part II Ideas, Ch.17 Sovereignty

Michel Troper

From: The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law

Edited By: Michel Rosenfeld, András Sajó

From: Oxford Constitutions (http://oxcon.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 30 May 2023

The idea that the state possesses and exercises a supreme and absolute power is central to constitutional law. It is almost impossible for anyone writing in the field to avoid discussing it, even if in some cases the discussion leads to denying that it is a meaningful concept. This is because theories of sovereignty have been a central part of constitutional discourse at least since Bodin defined it as ‘the absolute and perpetual power of a commonwealth … that is the highest power of command’.1 Several constitutions expressly refer to theories of sovereignty,...
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