Eloy, et al,
Well, you are confusing types of sovereignty. There is, of course the sovereignty of a person that is associated with the characteristic of adulthood and the ability to make decisions about one’s destiny. But the Sovereignty we are talking about here is a matter of authority; it is not a matter of mere authority, but of supreme authority.
Statehood is not just the matter of magic, Poof! It’s a state. Ad one of the characteristic of a State is territory; which is not just a matter of saying, that territory is mine. It is a matter of extending sovereign authority over it.
The holder of sovereignty is superior to all authorities under its purview. Supremacy, too, is endemic to modernity. During the Middle Ages, manifold authorities held some sort of legal warrant for their authority, whether feudal, canonical, or otherwise, but very rarely did such warrant confer supremacy.
A final ingredient of sovereignty is territoriality, also a feature of political authority in modernity. Territoriality is a principle by which members of a community are to be defined. It specifies that their membership derives from their residence within borders. It is a powerful principle, for it defines membership in a way that may not correspond with identity. The borders of a sovereign state may not at all circumscribe a “people” or a “nation,” and may in fact encompass several of these identities, as national self-determination and irredentist movements make evident. It is rather by simple virtue of their location within geographic borders that people belong to a state and fall under the authority of its ruler. It is within a geographic territory that modern sovereigns are supremely authoritative.
SOURCE: 1.
A Definition of Sovereignty
Or, in thumbnail terms: “
Sovereignty, in
political theory, the ultimate overseer, or
authority, in the decision-making process of the
state and in the maintenance of order. The concept of sovereignty—one of the most controversial ideas in
political science and international law—is closely related to the difficult concepts of state and government and of independence and
democracy. Derived from the Latin term
superanus through the French term
souveraineté,
sovereignty was originally meant to be the equivalent of supreme power. However, in practice it often has departed from this traditional meaning.” (WRITTEN BY:
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica )
Your post is too long for me to answer.
In your comment you wrote:
"The idea behind self-determination is at issue. The people of any given state, once the sovereignty is established, have the right to determine the nature and character of their country."
You appear to be suggesting that sovereignty comes after a state exists but this is seldom the case when it comes to a demand for the right of self-determination. People who call for self-determination are usually a minority in a state. It is not only a state that has sovereignty but also a people.
(COMMENT)
The Hostile Arab Palestinians (HoAP) can claim this or that is their territory. But their claim is somewhat illegitimate in that the HoAP never had sovereignty over the territory in question.
In order to say that a state exists ... it is enough that this territory has a sufficient consistency, even though its boundaries have not yet been accurately delimited, and that the state actually exercises independent public authority over that territory. (Law and National Security:Selected Issues Pnina Sharvit Baruch and Anat Kurz, Editors)
P F Tinmore said:
Rocco has this thing about sovereign states. Actually sovereignty belongs to the people. (The people of the place. Not people from someplace else.) Governments and states are the result of the exercise of their sovereignty not prerequisites. Preventing people the right to exercise their sovereignty is a crime against those people.
(COMMENT)
I think you are confused as to what "sovereignty" mean, relative to a political entity; or what it means when the say "sovereignty in person" relative to a state.
The bottom line is, that if an authority (or would be authority) cannot claim authority over the territory, it is not a state. If someone else exercises authority over the territory, then it was never theirs to begin with.
In fact, with the exception of Area "A", there is a huge question if the State of Palestine actually ever existed. Hence, one of the reasons they want Israel to relinquish control; and one of the reasons why the 1988 State of Palestine was only granted observer status.
Most Respectfully,
R