What Do You Reply When They Say That: National sovereignty can never be sacrificed.

By Joseph Baratta
( an article from summer issue of the World Citizens Party newsletter)

“Sovereignty” means the supreme power of a state, national independence, the authority to make laws binding on the citizens of a state. Think of the conduct of the sovereigns of old—the kings, and you will understand sovereignty. National sovereignty, or the rejection of higher laws binding upon the independent states, emerged with the collapse of the pretensions of the pope to supreme secular and spiritual authority during the Protestant Reformation. In democratic polities since the French revolution, sovereignty is thought to reside in the people, as is demonstrated in elections of their representatives for the making and execution of the laws.

Indeed, there can be no “sacrifice” of sovereignty—to whom would it be sacrificed? But it can be voluntarily limited or its powers delegated by the sovereign people. Every treaty is a partial limitation of sovereign powers. Every union, as in the United States or the European Union, is a delegation of enumerated powers to the higher organ of government. Historically, some 30 national federations have been created, starting with the U.S.A. under the federal Constitution in 1789. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Russia, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Australia are typical federations. In recent years some unitary states have undertaken “devolutions” of power, notably Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and France. There have also been some spectacular failures, as in the U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.

After World War II, the constitutions of at least 37 national states were amended to permit formation of regional unions. Every country that has joined the European Union, for instance, expressly provides for delegation of sovereign powers to the E.U. Italy’s Article 11 of its constitution of 1948 reads:

Italy renounces war as an instrument of offense to the liberty of other peoples or as a means of settlement of international disputes, and, on conditions of equality with other states, agrees to the limitations of her sovereignty necessary to an organization which will ensure peace and justice among nations, and promotes and encourages international organizations constituted for this purpose.

The proposal of the World Citizens Party, Massachusetts Branch, to exercise Art. 109 to amend the U.N. Charter is perfectly consistent with the history of establishment of federations. The objective is not to sacrifice the sovereignty of the United States but to pool sovereign powers of all the United Nations to make that organization capable of solving world problems beyond the powers of individual states alone. Global warming is one such problem; so is nuclear proliferation or human rights. As Thomas Jefferson said, “It is the right of the people … to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”