volved by
membership of the League, because every member submits to the
obligation never to resort to arms on account of a judicial dispute, and
in case of a political dispute to resort to arms only after having given
an opportunity of mediation to an International Council of Conciliation.
But in fact sovereignty does not mean absolutely boundless liberty of
action; and moreover sovereignty has at no time been a conception upon
the contents of which there has been general agreement.

The term 'sovereignty' was introduced into political science by Bodin in
his celebrated work 'De la Republique,' which appeared in 1577. Before
that time, the word _souverain_ was used in France for any political or
other authority which was not subordinate to any higher authority; for
instance, the highest Courts were called _cours souveraines_. Now Bodin
gave quite a new meaning to the old term. Being under the influence and
in favour of the policy of centralisation initiated by Louis XI of
France (1461-1483), the founder of French absolutism, Bodin defines
sovereignty as the 'absolute and perpetual power within a State.'
However, even Bodin was far from considering sovereignty to give
absolutely unfettered freedom of action, for he conceded that
sovereignty was restricted by the commandments of God and by the rules
of the Law of Nature. Be that as it may, this conception of sovereignty
once introduced was universally accepted; but at the same time the
meaning of the term became immediately a bone of contention between the
schools of publicists. And it is to be taken into consideration that the
science of politics has learnt to distinguish between sovereignty of
the State and sovereignty of the agents who exercise the sovereign
powers of the State. According to the modern view sovereignty is a
natural attribute of every independent State as a State; and neither the
monarch, nor Parliament, nor the people can possess any sovereignty of
their own. The sovereignty of a monarch, or of a Parliament, or of the
whole people is not an original attribute of their own, but derives from
the sovereignty of the State which is governed by them. It is outside
the scope of this lecture to give you a history of the conception of
sovereignty, it suffices to state the undeniable fact that from the time
when the term was first introduced into political science until the
present day there has never been unanimity with regard to its meaning,
except that it is