Theorigin, Changes And Challenges Of The Concept Of Sovereignty

The concept "sovereignty"appeared in16th century, as a political concept, it was also a key word in the area of international law and international relationship.The day the concept appeared, there have been always debates about it. What is sovereignty? Is it necessary?Is it out of date? There is no consensus about these questions. The only thing we can confirm is that,sovereignty came up with the construction of nation state and that sovereignty has been changing with the development of nation states all time long. With more and more international communication, borders between countries have become ambiguous and sovereignty has been challenged strongly ever. We can put international intervention as examples.As we all know,when one country send army to another country, it can be seen as declaring a war. But it seems that international intervention is not within this definition. It has moral right. But when this moral right conflicts to sovereign legitimacy, what reaction should sovereignty do? This paper will do some research on this question.Besides open words and conclusion,there has four chapters. The first chapter will trace the origin of the concept;the second chapter will describe changes of the concept with internal and external practice of nation state; the third chapter will line up challenges the concept met and meets now; the fourth chapter concentrates on a typical challenge of international intervention.