Sovereign right

A right which the state alone, or some of its governmental agencies, can possess, and which it possesses in the character of a sovereign, for the common benefit, and to enable it to carry out its proper functions; distinguished from such "proprietary" rights as a state, like any private person, may have in property or demands which it owns.

See St. Paul v. Chicago, etc., R. Co., 45 Minn. 387, 48 N. W. 17.