Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
A federal statute providing individuals with a right of action against foreign governments, under certain circumstances, to the extent the claim arises from the private, as opposed to the public, acts of the foreign state. 28 USCA ยงยง 1602-1611. - Abbr. FSIA. See RESTRICTIVE PRINCIPLE OF SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY.
Sovereign
n. 1. A person, body, or state vested with independent and supreme authority. 2. The ruler of an independent state. - Also spelled souran. See SOVEREIGNTY. sovereign immunity See IMMUNITY (1).
Sovereignty
1 Supreme dominion, authority, or rule. 2. The supreme political authority of an independent state. 3. The state itself. "It is well to [distinguish] the senses in which the word Sovereignty is used. In the ordinary popular sense it means Supremacy, the right to demand obedience. Although the idea of actual power is not absent, the prominent idea is that of some sort of title to exercise control. An ordinary layman would call that person (or body of persons) Sovereign in a State who is obeyed because he is acknowledged to stand at the top, whose will must be expected to prevail, who can get his own way, and make others go his, because such is the practice of the country. Etymologically the word of course means merely superiority, and familiar usage applies it in monarchies to the monarch, because he stands first in the State, be his real power great or small." James Bryce, Studies in History and Jurisprudence 504-05 (1901).
dual-sovereignty doctrine
The rule that the federal and state governments may both prosecute someone for a crime, without violating the constitutional protection against double jeopardy, if the person's act violated both jurisdictions' laws. See DUAL-PROSECUTION RULE.
external sovereignty
The power of dealing on a nation's behalf with other national governments.
internal sovereignty
The power that rulers exercise over their own subjects.
internal sovereignty.
See SOVEREIGNTY.
nonsovereign state
A state that is a constituent part of a greater state that includes both it and one or more others, and to whose government it is subject; a state that is not complete and self-existent. - Also termed dependent state.
part-sovereign state
A political community in which part of the powers of external sovereignty are exercised by the home government, and part are vested in or controlled by some other political body or bodies. 9 Such a state is not fully independent because by the conditions of its existence it is not allowed full freedom of action in external affairs.
restrictive principle of sovereign immunity
The doctrine by which a foreign nation's immunity does not apply to claims arising from the nation's private or commercial acts, but protects the nation only from claims arising from its public functions. See COMMERCIAL-ACTIVITY EXCEPTION; JURE GESTIONIS; JURE IMPERIL
separate-sovereigns rule
Criminal procedure. The principle that a person may be tried twice for the same offense - despite the Double Jeopardy Clause - if the prosecutions are conducted by separate sovereigns, as by the federal government and a state government or by two different states. See DOUBLE JEOPARDY.
sovereign immunity
1. A government's immunity from being sued in its own courts without its consent. ( Congress has waived most of the federal government's sovereign immunity. See FEDERAL TORT CLAIMS ACT. 2. A state's immunity from being sued in federal court by the state's own citizens. - Also termed governmental immunity. work product immunity. See WORK-PRODUCT RULE. 2. Torts. A doctrine providing a complete defense to a tort action. ( Unlike a privilege, immunity does not negate the tort, and it must be raised affirmatively or it will be waived. Cf. PRIVILEGE (2).
sovereign people
The political body consisting of the collective number of citizens and qualified electors who possess the powers of sovereignty and exercise them through their chosen representatives.
sovereign political power
Power that is absolute and uncontrolled within its own sphere. ( Within its designated limits, its exercise and effective operation do not depend on, and are not subject to, the power of any other person and cannot be prevented or annulled by any other power recognized within the constitutional system. - Often shortened to sovereign power. - Also termed supreme power.
sovereign power
The power to make and enforce laws.
sovereign right
A unique right possessed by a state or its agencies that enables it to carry out its official functions for the public benefit, as distinguished from certain proprietary rights that it may possess like any other private person.
sovereign state
See SOVEREIGN STATE.
state sovereignty
The right of a state to self government; the supreme authority exercised by each state.