Sovereign and subordinate power.—In respect of its extent civil power, whether legislative, judicial, or executive, is of two kinds, being either sovereign or subordinate. Sovereign or supreme power is that which is absolute and uncontrolled within its own sphere. Within its appointed limits, if any, its exercise and effective operation are not dependent on or subject to the power of any other person. An act of sovereign power is one which cannot be prevented or annulled by any other power recognised by the constitution of the state. Subordinate power, on the other hand, is that which, even in its own sphere of operation, is in some degree subject to external control. There exists some other constitutional power which is superior to it, and which can prevent, restrict, or direct its exercise, or annul its operation.[[105]]
§ 42. Independent and Dependent States.
States may be classified in two different ways: (1) with respect to their external relations to other states and (2) with respect to their internal composition. The former mode has regard to their international, the latter to their constitutional position and structure. Classified internationally or externally, all states are of two kinds, being either independent or dependent. Classified constitutionally or internally, they are also of two kinds, being either unitary or composite.
An independent or sovereign state is one which possesses a separate existence, being complete in itself, and not merely a part of a larger whole to whose government it is subject. A dependent or non-sovereign state, on the other hand, is one which is not thus complete and self-existent, but is merely a constituent portion of a greater state which includes both it and others, and to whose government it is subject. The British Empire, the United States of America, and the Kingdom of Italy are independent states. But the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, and the States of California and New York are dependent, for they are not self-existent, but merely parts of the British Empire and of the United States of America respectively, and subject to their control and government.
It is maintained by some writers that a dependent state is not, properly speaking, a state at all—that the constituent and dependent parts of an independent state may be termed colonies, provinces, territories, and so on, but have no valid claim to the name of state. This objection, however, seems unfounded. It is contrary to the received usage of speech, and that usage seems capable of logical justification. Whether a part of a thing is entitled to the same name as the whole depends on whether the whole and the part possess the same essential nature. A part of a rope is itself a rope, if long enough to serve the ordinary purposes of one; but part of a shilling is not itself a shilling. Whether, therefore, any territorial division of a state is to be classed as itself a state depends on whether, in itself and in isolation, it possesses and fulfils the essential functions of one. This in its turn depends on the extent of the autonomy or independent activity which is permitted to it by the constitution. Speaking generally, we may say that any such division which possesses a separate legislature, judicature, and executive, and is thus separately organised for the maintenance of peace and justice, is entitled to be regarded as itself a state. The Commonwealth of Australia is a true state, though merely a part of the larger state of the British Empire, for it conforms to the definition of a state, as a society established and organised for the administration of justice and for external defence. Were it to become independent, it could, without altering its constitution, or taking upon itself any further function than those which it now possesses, stand alone as a distinct and self-sufficient political community. But a municipal corporation or a district council has not in itself the nature of a political society, for it does not in itself fulfil the essential ends of one.
International law takes account only of independent or sovereign states, for it consists of the rules which regulate the relations of such states to one another. A dependent state is not an international unit, and possesses no international personality. Internationally regarded, its existence is simply a detail of the internal constitution of the larger and independent state of which it forms a part. This internal structure pertains exclusively to the constitutional law of the state itself, and the law of nations is not concerned with it. The existence of the Dominion of Canada or of the State of Victoria is a constitutional, not an international fact, for in the eye of the law of nations the whole British Empire is a single undivided unit.[[106]]
Independent states are themselves of two kinds, distinguished as fully sovereign and semi-sovereign. A fully sovereign state is, as its name imports, one whose sovereignty is in no way derogated from by any control exercised over it by another state. It is possessed of absolute and complete autonomy. A semi-sovereign state, on the other hand, is one which is to a greater or less extent subordinate to some other, its sovereignty or autonomy being imperfect by reason of external control. The authority so exercised over it is termed a protectorate or sometimes suzerainty. Most independent states are fully sovereign, the others being few in number and anomalous in character. An example is Zanzibar, which stands in this relation to the British Empire.
It is carefully to be noticed that semi-sovereign states are independent, in the sense already explained. They are self-existent, international units, and not merely parts of the state under whose control they are. Zanzibar is not part of the British Empire. These are two distinct states, bearing towards each other a relation which is international and external, and not merely constitutional and internal. In order that a state should be dependent or non-sovereign, it is not enough that it should be under the control of another state; it must also be a constituent part of the state under whose control it is. The mere exercise of a partial dominion by one state over another does not of necessity incorporate the two into a higher unity. The establishment of a protectorate is not equivalent to annexation. The acts of the one state are not imputed to the other; the property and territory of the one are not those of the other also; the subjects of the one are not those of the other; one may be at peace while the other is at war. The Ionian Islands were formerly a protected state under the control of Great Britain; but during the Crimean War they remained neutral and at peace.
A semi-sovereign state is in a position of unstable equilibrium. It is the outcome of a compromise between dependence and independence, which, save in exceptional circumstances, is not likely to be permanent. The control exercised by one independent state over another is in most cases destined either to disappear altogether, so that the semi-sovereign state becomes fully sovereign, or to develop until the separate international existence of the inferior is merged in that of the superior, the semi-sovereign state descending to the lower level of dependency, and becoming merely a constitutional subdivision of the state to which it is subordinate.