O conceito de soberania, hoje: breves notas

Abstract

This text is a critical exploration of the concept of sovereignty, in order to understand some of the legal-normative relationships that are established in the field of international law and, above all, the legal-political character of what is perhaps the most complicated political experience to understand from a dogmatic point of view: federalism. We begin by laying the foundations for the discussion by presenting the concepts of politics, authority and sovereignty, before moving on to the problem of the absolute nature of the latter. We conclude that sovereignty must be understood at the crossroads of two dichotomies: internal and external sovereignty, and potestas and potentia – sovereignty as power and sovereignty as the exercise of a power, the former presupposing the possibility of limiting the latter. Understood in this way, some questions about the absolute nature of sovereignty (and its potential use and usefulness as a dogmatic concept with practical importance) may become clearer.