1. A state that possesses an independent existence, being complete in itself, without being merely part of a larger whole to whose government it is subject.
2. A political community whose members are bound together by the tie of common subjection to some central authority, whose commands those members must obey.
— Also termed independent state. Cf. client state and nonsovereign state under STATE. [Cases: International Law
3. C.J.S. International Law §§ 6–8, 13.]
“The essence of statehood is sovereignty, the principle that each nation answers only to its own domestic order and is not accountable to a larger international community, save only to the extent it has consented to do so. Sovereign states are thus conceived as hermetically sealed units, atoms that spin around an international orbit, sometimes colliding, sometimes cooperating, but always separate and apart.” David J. Bederman, International Law Frameworks 50 (2001).
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. • 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.
