Sovereignty

In international relations, sovereignty refers to the supreme and unrestricted authority of a state or territory. All independent countries have national sovereignty – in other words, they have the right and power to control their internal affairs without foreign interference. A sovereign state executes and applies its own laws at a national level and also determines the nature of its relations with other countries. Questions of national sovereignty normally tend to arise during land and territorial disputes and the implementation of international law in national constitutions.