Sovereignty between Christianity and Legal Modernity

The concept of sovereignty is the corner stone of the edifice of modern political and legal systems but to a certain extent we have lost the understanding of the historical significance of this concept which was coined in the beginning of modernity. The full meaning of this concept could be gained only by delineating its conceptual history. In its first part (1), this article explores the mediaeval predecessors of this distinctively modern concept by examining two debates, the theological and the juristic one: (a) The model of the absolute sovereign could have been constructed according to the idea of voluntaristic God conceived in such a way by nominalism (the theological argument) and (b) the concept of jurisdictio used by the mediaeval jurists was very similar to our sovereignty (the juristic argument). Both these strands of arguments were presupposed in the process of elaboration of the modern concept of sovereignty by French legist Jean Bodin. In the second part of this article (2), Bodin´s theory of sovereignty is thoroughly analyzed. Its eminent importance derives from the fact that Bodin´s theory was crucial for the construction of modern state as opposed to feudalism of the Middle Ages. In the early modernity, the sovereign is identified with legislator and the act of the sovereign is the law. Although during the modernity, sovereignty was developed from its absolutist signification to the popular sovereignty, many basic characteristics of sovereignty remained identical. Hence the article argues for the importance of the studying of the contribution of mediaeval and early modern authors for the elaboration of this key concept of legal modernity.