Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
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.
state sovereignty
The right of a state to self government; the supreme authority exercised by each state.