• Americas
      • Dutch
      • English
      • French
      • Mayan
      • Portuguese (Brazilian)
      • Spanish
    • Central & South Asia
      • Bangla
      • Dari
      • Dhivehi
      • English
      • Farsi
      • Kyrgyz
      See More
    • East Asia & Oceania
      • Indonesian
      • Burmese
      • Chin (Burma)
      • Chinese
      • Portuguese (Continental)
      • English
      See More
    • Europe & Eurasia
      • Armenian
      • Azeri
      • Belarusian
      • Catalan
      • Portuguese (Continental)
      • Croatian
      See More
    • Middle East & North Africa
      • Arabic
      • Azeri
      • Dari
      • English
      • Farsi
      • Hebrew
      See More
    • Sub-Saharan Africa
      • Afaan Oromo
      • Amharic
      • Arabic
      • Portuguese (Continental)
      • English
      • French
      See More
  • Learn More About ICNC's Translations Program

International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

  • About
    • What Is Civil Resistance?
    • Our Work
    • Our Impact
    • Who We Are
    • Jobs & Internships
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Contact Us
  • Services
    • Online Courses
    • Interactive Workshops
    • Staff Training
    • Coaching
    • Training of Trainers (ToT)
  • Programs
    • Column 2
      • Minds of The Movement Blog
      • ICNC Publications
      • Nonviolent Conflict News
      • ICNC Online Courses
      • Regional Institutes
      • Sign Up
      • ICNC Webinars
      • For Activists & Organizers
      • For Scholars & Students
      • For Policy Community
  • Resource Library
    • English Language Resources
    • Translated Resources
    • ICNC Films
  • Media & Blog
    • For Journalists and Press
    • ICNC Newsmakers
    • Minds of the Movement Blog
  • Translations
    • Afran Oromo
    • Amharic
    • Arabic
    • Armenian
    • Azeri
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bangla
    • Belarusian
    • Burmese
    • Chin (Burma)
    • Chinese
    • Croatian
    • Dutch
    • Estonian
    • Farsi
    • French
    • Georgian
    • German
    • Hebrew
    • Hindi
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Jing-Paw (Burma)
    • Karen (Burma)
    • Khmer
    • Kiswahili
    • Kituba
    • Korean
    • Latvian
    • Lingala
    • Lithuanian
    • Macedonian
    • Malagasy
    • Mayan
    • Mon (Burma)
    • Mongolian
    • Nepali
    • Norwegian
    • Pashto
    • Polish
    • Portuguese (Brazilian)
    • Portuguese (Continental)
    • Russian
    • Serbian
    • Sindh
    • Slovak
    • Spanish
    • Tagalog
    • Tamil
    • Thai
    • Tibetan
    • Tigrigna
    • Turkish
    • Ukrainian
    • Urdu
    • Uzbek
    • Vietnamese
    • Xhosa
    • Learn More About ICNC's Translations Program
  • Search
    • Search This Site

“People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law

View excerpt
“People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law
Download the Paper (PDF, 378KB)

“People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law

Elizabeth Wilson’s paper summarizes the tension between internal and external sovereignty as recognized by international law, and discusses the main legal rules that have developed to protect sovereignty as recognized in international law. Part III examines two well-known attempts to resolve the tension between internal and external sovereignty: the right to democracy and the responsibility to protect. The analysis shows that, despite being innovative, both principles have fallen short of incorporating popular sovereignty. Part IV presents an alternative argument for taking account of popular sovereignty in international law. It theorizes “people  power” at two stages in the life-cyle of a state: at the moment of initial consent to a power arrangement through the constitution of an “imagined community,” and at the moment when consent is withdrawn through large-scale revolutionary nonviolent civil resistance movements. Part V indicates some practical implications that this reconceptualization of external sovereignty to take account of “people power” might have for particular areas of international law.

Elizabeth Wilson

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, 2015

Download the Paper (PDF, 378KB)
  • “People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law
  • “People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law
  • “People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law
  • “People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law
  • “People Power” and the Problem of Sovereignty in International Law

You may also be interested in:

  • The Struggle After People Power Wins

    Brief article on the 2004 Ukranian Orange Revolution, and the missed opportunities afterwards that led to increased suppression after a brief period o…

  • Internationalizing Rights-Based Resistance in China: the UN Human Rights Council and the Citizen

    From article: Chinese activists are gradually strengthening the framing of domestic grievances with the vocabulary of international human rights, mark…

  • People Power Movements and International Human Rights: Creating a Legal Framework

    International human rights law did not come into existence top-down, out of the benevolent intentions of states, even though states eventually began t…

  • Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance

    The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) was developed as a doctrine to prevent mass atrocities (genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against…

Return to Resource Library homepage

International Center on Nonviolent Conflict

600 New Hampshire Avenue NW
Suite 1010
Washington, D.C. 20037, USA

+1 202-596-8845

Other ICNC Affiliated Websites

  • Nonviolent Conflict News
  • Online Courses Platform
  • CivilResistance.net

Copyright ©2025 International Center on Nonviolent Conflict · All Rights Reserved

Note: Search results are listed in alphabetical order.