Westphalian sovereignty

Absolute monarchies ruled the powerful world between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries and are characterised by strict laws and harsh punishment if you are to disobey. Many absolute monarchs became power hungry and greedy as their term continued, and began to have a negative influence on their people (if they did not already have one). Although there are many absolute monarchs which fit some of these characteristics, I believe the one that best exemplifies the definition is Henry VIII.…

As President George W. Bush led a march of troops into Afghanistan, one of his strongest allies was notably missing. The Japanese, refrained by their strict interpretation of their constitution, refused to participate in any use of force in the region. Instead Japan’s powerful Self-Defense Forces (SDF), the fourth highest-funded military in the world , went to nonviolent regions of Iraq to participate in humanitarian relief efforts . Additionally, these Japanese troops required foreign troops…

organizations such as Red Cross. Humanitarian aid attempts to find a way around political affiliations. For humanitarian intervention, use of military force is a central feature, though it has fundamental values that support it such as justice, state sovereignty, world order and politics. Moreover, the principles that govern humanitarian intervention are just cause, proportionality, last resort, good over harm, right intention and reasonable…

Many monarchs during the seventeenth century used absolutism as a governing force to rule their lands. During the reign of Louis XIV, Jean Domat wrote a profound document in which he addressed all areas of government and outlined what he believed to be the tenets of an absolute monarchy. This document, entitled “On Social Order and Absolute Monarchy” defined what he believed to be the basis of absolutism and class structure in regards to the law of God and the law of nature. Absolutism is as…

In this modern era of technology there are many opportunities for prosperity and advancement; however, there are also an equal amounts of opportunity for terrorism as well. In order to prevent this terrorism, the government is taking certain measures in regards to safety; these measures, however, often violate what many deem as their right to privacy. By applying Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan to this problem of privacy, the reader sees that not only would Hobbes agree with the steps the government is…

The world is an integrated whole, but throughout history, society has divided itself. The modern geopolitical imagination is the latest in a line of the ever-changing ways we organise the world. While it has its benefits, it also has limitations. It seems like an efficient structure of independent states but these divisions are essentially imagined by the dominant society. In some cases, the modern geopolitical imagination was thrust upon a region and is not a perfect system; international…

Attitudes towards sovereignty and individual rights tend to be highly polarized. On one side of the spectrum are those who believe that the most emphasized aspect of international law should be the protection of sovereignty while others hope for individual rights to be promoted and protected. International lawyers Kofi Annan and Martti Koskenniemi, offer their contrasting perspectives. Martti Koskenniemi believes that sovereignty since its inception has played a vital role in developing…

To the people of Fontenay-le-Comte, I thank you all for having provided me with the opportunity to represent you in the National Assembly. In the past few months, I had listened to and voted on each proposition with only your best interest in mind. Despite my efforts, not only have we lost the National Assembly, we have lost our beloved country of France to Austro-Prussia. Despite the loss of our country, I write to you in good faith that the invasion and takeover of France will in fact greatly…

2. TERRITORIAL WATERS Article 2(1) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)48 provides that, “[t]he sovereignty of a coastal State ex-tends, beyond its land territorial and internal waters and, in the case of an archipelagic State, its archipelagic waters, to an adjacent belt of sea, described as the territorial sea”. This maritime zone extends up to 12 nautical miles (Article 3, UNCLOS). The only major exception to this sovereign power of the state is the right of…

. The typical common reader is someone who has the symbolic complex. A common reader may be a person who limits themselves to what is in the text. In Percy’s essay, he talks about the work of the symbolic complex. When he mentioned the symbolic complex that is likely to be the common reader. Someone who just views what is in front of them and may not look into the meaning of the text that is being read. This is exactly like the regular vacationer Percy discusses in his essay. This individual is…