Challenges To State Sovereignty

CHALLENGES TO STATE SOVEREIGNTY

Sovereignty has been considered as an important element of the State. Every independent nation in this world posses sovereignty. Generally speaking sovereignty is broadly divided into:

1.    Internal sovereignty and

2.    External sovereignty.

Internal sovereignty of a nation signifies that it is internally supreme to any type of associations or groups. External sovereignty denotes that a particular nation is not legally bound to any other nations except international bodies such as UNO and International Court of Justice. As regards the internal sovereignty within the State itself, it is absolute. The sovereign can make any law it pleases.

According A.V. Dicey there are two limitations on sovereignty. The external sovereignty is limited by citizens disobey or resists the laws. The internal sovereignty is limited by the very nature of the sovereign power. Today, the very essence of both internal and external sovereignty of nations are challenged. There has been a constant threat to the sovereignty of the nation. Such threat came as a result of neo-colonisation or globalisation of world economy. Many political scientist felt that there are visible and invisible factors contributing to the erosion of national sovereignty.

EROSION OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

The world today is aptly described as a 'Global village' in which a web of information networks interconnects individuals as well as organisations and governments. The global village is a world that is increasingly interconnected buy communication technologies and that is tending toward a global culture. Driven by technological and economic forces, globalisation gathered momentum since 1990's. The process of globalisation has been initiated originally to protect the economic interests of G-8 nations as well as to expand the market areas for the Multinational Corporations (MNC's). Since 1990, there has been a tremendous increase in number of MNC's. During 1990, there were only 3000 MNC's and this has increased to 63,000 today. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of European Community, there has been a phenomenal growth in MNC's doing business across national borders.