The Submission of the Sovereign: An Examination of the Compatibility of Sovereignty and International Law

摘要

The successful implementation of international law is a contemporary problem whose elusive solutions have appeared to be particularly fickle. Both conceptual and practical concerns form barriers to its execution. However, in this paper I have endeavored to show that one such conceptual problem, that of the tension between international law and sovereignty, is a problem that dissipates once the concept of sovereignty is reformulated and properly understood. I then surveyed current applications of international law in order to determine whether they comport with this understanding of sovereignty, and whether there is room for this expression of the freedom of the state. In my examination of the ICJ, I determined that its current practices do in fact align with the proper understanding of state sovereignty, and allow for states to exercise their sovereignty. Finally, I explored whether a sovereign state can engage in a kind of international civil disobedience by defying a decree to which it has bound itself. In light of the conceptualization of sovereignty adopted herein, a sovereign state does not have this ability. Only a state with a power less than sovereign may back out of its obligations, as a truly sovereign state has the ability to bind itself beyond contravention. The insights of Kant, Endicott, and others reveal sovereignty in its potent and absolute form, and demonstrate the compatibility of sovereignty and international law. The favorable environment of the current international theater exposes the reality that the burden remains on individual states to recognize their own sovereignty, and to act upon that recognition.