The State’s Right to Intervene

Abstract

The most clear-cut affirmation of the rights of states was the assertion of the principle of sovereignty. In defending this claim such writers as Bodin and Hobbes (pp. 136 and 40 above) had in effect declared that the ruler could do as he pleased within his own lands; and that those who had previously enjoyed rights independent of the prince — feudal lords, municipalities and the church — were subject to his sovereign power. The most fundamental right of rulers, and therefore of states, was to order the lives of those within their borders according to their own discretion.