Exposing and Criticizing the Fallacious Reasoning of Imperialists on Questions Concerning National Sovereignty

Abstract

According to the Marxist-Leninist theory of the state, the state is the organ of class rule; it is the tool with which one class oppresses another class. There has never been in the world a classless state or a state that transcends class; every state is the dictatorship of a certain class. Bourgeois political scientists and legalists describe the state as the sum of territory, sovereignty, and population. They try to substitute the concept of sovereignty for the concept of class dictatorship. By so doing they have completely distorted and obscured the class character of the state. This is fundamentally wrong. However, this certainly does not mean that in international relations national sovereignty and the principle of sovereignty should be denied, or that one state should be allowed to encroach upon the sovereignty of another state. On the contrary, in international relations and in the entire system of international law, sovereignty is one of the most important principles. It is the nucleus of all the fundamental principles of international law. The principles of noninterference in the internal affairs [of other states], of nonaggression, of mutual benefit on the basis of equality, and so on, are all based on the principle of mutual respect for sovereignty. At the same time, the principle of sovereignty has important connections with other norms in international law. In international law many important institutions and principles are based in varying degrees on the principle of mutual respect for sovereignty. For example, the basic premises of the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes, observance of treaties, special privileges and immunities in foreign relations, etc., are that states respect each other's sovereignty and do not undermine one another's independence. Thus, in many questions of international law the principle of sovereignty is the legal standard by which a certain action is judged to be in accordance with or in violation of the law. Precisely because this is the case, struggles revolving around the principle of sovereignty in international law are frequently extremely acute and violent. Therefore, whether in the present struggle against imperialism or in the struggle on the front of international law theory, a correct understanding of the principle of sovereignty in international law is extremely important.