ABSTRACT
Yet another book about sovereignty?! Every year, hundreds of academic studies and scholarly articles dealing with the problem of sovereignty are published around the world. Different theories and philosophies of politics and law and social science approaches tackle various issues and themes traditionally associated with the concept of sovereignty. They examine operations of political power, including its legal form, yet also specify what the relations between public authorities and their subjects should be like. Theories of sovereignty can address both legitimate origins and uses of power, the criteria and conduct of public authorities and conditions of obedience of their subjects. They can be realistic encounters of politics as the realm of power and decision-making, yet equally explore the notion of the common good and political virtues as preconditions of the maintenance of political and social order. The coercive state power is impossible to exercise without legitimacy of the power’s origin and use. No wonder Michael Walzer, for instance, states that ‘sovereignty is a permanent feature of political life’1 and notes that the most important political question concerns the boundaries within which sovereignty operates and the ideology or doctrine legitimizing those boundaries.
