Sovereign

A chief ruler with supreme power; a king or other ruler with limited power.

In English law. A gold coin of' Great Britain, of the value of a pound sterling.

— Sovereign people. A term familiarly used to describe the political body, consisting of the entire number of citizens and qualified electors, who, in their collegiate capacity, possess the powers of sovereignty and exercise them through their chosen representatives. See Scott v. Sand-ford, 19 How. 404, 15 L. Eld. 691.

— Sovereign power. That power in a state to which none other is superior or equal, and which includes ali the specific powers which are necessary to accomplish the legitimate ends and purposes of government See Boggs v. Merced Min. Co., 14 Cal. 309: Donnelly v. Decker, 58 Wis, 461, 17 N. W. 389, 46 Am. Rep. 637; Com. v. Alger, 7 Cush. (Mass.) 81.

— 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.

— Sovereign states. States whose subjects or citizens are in the habit of obedience to them, and which are not themselves subject to any other (or paramount) state in any respect. The state is said to be semisovereign only, and not sovereign, when in any respect or respects it is liable to be controlled (like certain of the states in India) by a paramount government, (e. g., by the British empire.) Brown. "In the intercourse of nations, certain states have a position of entire independence of others, and can perform ali those acts which it is possible for any state to perform in this particular sphere. These same states have also entire power of self-government; that is, of independence upon ali other states as far as their own territory and citizens not living abroad are concerned. No foreign power or law can have control except by convention. This power of independent action in external and internal relations constitutes complete sovereignty." Wools. Pol. Science, I. 204.

Of supreme civil, military, person or body of persons in whom law rests.

A chief ruler with supreme power, one possessing sovereignty, (q. v-) It is also applied to a king or other magistrate with limited powers. In the United States the sovereignty resides in the body of the people. Vide Rutherf. Inst. 282.