During the short period of absolute monarchies in Europe, the divine right of kings was an important competing justification for the exercise of sovereignty. The mandate of heaven has had similar effects in China. [67] Since the United Nations Charter came into force (14 December 1946), more than 200,000 international treaties or agreements by MEMBERS of the United Nations have been registered with the Secretariat. See United Nations Treaty Collection, Overview, treaties.un.org/Pages/Overview.aspx?path=overview/overview/page1_en.xml (latest, May 15, 2016). In addition, central authorities may not only lack expertise in dealing with matters within the jurisdiction of federal states, but may also have legitimate incentives to do so. In the modern system of government, domestic sovereignty is generally found in states that have public sovereignty and are rarely found in a state controlled by an internal sovereign. A slightly different form of government is the British parliamentary system. John Austin argued that in the United Kingdom sovereignty would not be transferred to the crown or the people, but to the “Queen of Parliament.” [1] This is the origin of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and is generally regarded as the fundamental principle of the British Constitution. With these principles of parliamentary sovereignty, majority control can gain unlimited constitutional authority, creating what is called an “electoral dictatorship” or a “modern autocracy.” Public sovereignty in modern governments is much more common with examples such as the United States, Canada, Australia and India, where government is divided into different levels. [26] [18] See z.B. T.D. Grant, “Defining Statehood… “Op.

cit., p. 405-406 wrote that “modern developments have increased the relative legal status of these actors. Strengthening the role of individuals in international law is essential in this regard. States and individuals, entities, political or religious parties or movements, organized interest groups, transnational ethnic communities and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have multiplied and played a role in international society, and this development has also forced authors to reassess what a person can represent under international law. In footnotes, he refers in particular to the European Convention on the Recognition of the Legal Personality of International Non-Governmental Organizations 124, 1986; B.E. Carter – P.R. Trimble, International Law, Boston, Little, Brown, 1991, p. 411 s.q.

(“States, international organizations, individuals, businesses and other entities have different legally binding statutes under international law”); J.I. harney, “Transnational Corporations and Developing International Law,” 1983 Duke Law Journal 748, 1983; P.K. Menon, “The International Personality of Individuals in International Law: A Broadening of the Traditional Doctrine,” J. Transnat`l L. – Pol`y, 1992; D.J. Ettinger, “The Legal Status of the International Olympic Committee,” Pace Y.B. International Law 4, 1992. The American reader is perhaps disoriented by the analysis of the capabilities of the federated states in international law and by the political arguments put forward here that support such positions. This may be largely because, as Carl Schmitt suggested nearly a century ago, the United States could be “interconnectable” to the “federal states” (the federal state without a federal base).

In his view, this is done with a federal system if the issue of “sovereignty” is resolved for the benefit of the central authority and if constitutional rules and institutions are not formally amended to reflect this “clarification”.