SOVEREIGNTY AS A CATEGORY INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LAW

Abstract

The question of sovereignty is an issue whose both theoretical and practical aspects are usually discussed within the confines of International Public Law or International Relations as scientific disciplines. This paper is an attempt to go beyond this “traditional standard” elucidating and discovering possible connections of this legal and political category with its “new” theoretical “environment”, International Private Law. In this paper the author neither holds any expectations nor pretends to prove that this institute represents the domineering category regarding International Private Law, but wishes to point out that there are certain connections between them. Sovereignty is what one might call a “discreet” point of reference in determining the very subject-matter of International Private Law on the basis of which this scientific discipline has been developed and its basic principles and solutions brought about. It represents a barrier and a guideline in the same time, as well as a “motivator” in searching for “reliable and viable” solutions in this Feld. The fact that International Private Law does not focus directly on this relation has little influence on the factual state of relations; however, it points toward a need for opening theoretical space for different kinds of considerations.