Sovereignty and Property

Abstract

The Chapter deals with the relationship between the two concepts of sovereignty and property. It first addresses the thesis developed by North, Wallis and Weingast on the role of organized violence in the development of a modern, open access society. Their intuition is that the « limited access order » of the « natural state » in which personal relationships form the basis of social organization had to leave the way to an « open access order » in which impersonal categories of individuals interact. This is generally correct. But they neglected the role of law in the process and, in particular, the role of the development of constitutional modes of government. Via modern international law, starting in Europe in the middle of the seventeenth century, sovereignty was allocated among States. Via modern liberal constitutions, internal sovereignty was decentralized as a matter of principle to owners, who are decision-makers as a matter of principle towards the objects of property. The operations of political Organs of the State, of administrative Organs of the State and of law can usefully be viewed in this perspective.