National Sovereignty Versus Institutional Authority

Abstract

The growing importance of international institutions, the growing impact on political relations of international conventions guaranteed by court systems caused certain changes within the wordings of constitutional argumentation. Since these international or supranational entities are more legal constructions than political communities, sovereignty is not a suitable notion for their description. The notion of sovereignty is replaced by institutional authority when international organizations are described. Before international courts sovereignty cannot be used as an argument. If an exception based on sovereignty is accepted, the effectiveness of the international conventions is questioned. Consequently, sovereignty slowly disappears from the national constitutional argumentation. This development endangers the grounds of states, as their sovereignty is dissolved within the context of different institutional authorities.