Sovereignty

Sovereignty is understood in jurisprudence as the full right and power of a governing body to govern itself without any interference from outside sources or bodies. In political theory, sovereignty is a substantive term designating supreme authority over some polity. It is a basic principle underlying the dominant Westphalian model of state foundation.

Derived from Latin through French souveraineté, its attainment and retention, in both Chinese and Western culture, has traditionally been associated with certain moral imperatives upon any claimant.

Different approaches

The concept of sovereignty has been discussed throughout history, from the time before recorded history through to the present day. It has changed in its definition, concept, and application throughout, especially during the Age of Enlightenment. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects consisting of territory, population, authority and recognition. According to Stephen D. Krasner, the term could also be understood in four different ways:

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, or the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth), is an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states that were mostly territories of the former British Empire. The Commonwealth operates by intergovernmental consensus of the member states, organised through the Commonwealth Secretariat and Non-governmental organisations, organised through the Commonwealth Foundation.

The Commonwealth dates back to the mid-20th century with the decolonisation of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the member states as "free and equal". The symbol of this free association is Queen Elizabeth II who is the Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also the monarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, known as Commonwealth realms. The other members of the Commonwealth have different persons as head of state: 32 members are republics and five members are monarchies with a different monarch.

India

India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also shaped the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.

Legal fiction

A legal fiction is a fact assumed or created by courts which is then used in order to apply a legal rule. Legal fiction allows an intellectual tradition of defining a legal standard such as by way of a person, which has resulted in the creation of classic hypothetical figures in law including: The man on the Clapham omnibus, the right-thinking member of society, the officious bystander, the "reasonable parent," the "reasonable landlord," and the "fair-minded and informed observer," and stretching back to Roman jurists, the figure of the bonus paterfamilias. Legal fictions are mostly encountered under common law systems.

While all creation of law is subject to unintended consequences, that resulting from legal fiction can produce particular outrage because it follows from a premise in pure fantasy. Legal fictions may be counterintuitive to those surprised to hear logic from fantasy as a means to administer justice in the modern course of everyday life, but they are preserved to advance public policy and preserve the rights of certain individuals and institutions. Such an example is when a corporation is treated in judicial proceedings as if it were a "natural person" and thus has the same legal rights and responsibilities as a natural person.

Common law

Common law (also known as case law or precedent) is law developed by judges, courts, and similar tribunals, stated in decisions that nominally decide individual cases but that in addition have precedential effect on future cases. Common law is a third branch of law, in contrast to and on equal footing with statutes which are adopted through the legislative process, and regulations which are promulgated by the executive branch.

A "common law system" is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law, so that consistent principles applied to similar facts yield similar outcomes. The body of past common law binds judges that make future decisions, just as any other law does, to ensure consistent treatment. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is usually bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as stare decisis). If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases (called a "matter of first impression"), judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent. Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts. Stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems.