That individual or body (to whom such obedience is given) is not in a habit of
obedience to a determinate human superior.
Since bulk, habit of obedience, and independent are relative terms, the
abstraction of Sovereign or Independent Political Society cannot be precisely defined.
In such cases, the society (including its Sovereign) is a society political and
independent.
If a possible sovereign is in the habit of obedience to another, then that sovereign (and
its subjects) are not independent but rather a limb or member of the greater society
to which it habitually owes obedience.
Lecture VI (cont.)
Independent political societies, then, can in some ways be said to live in a state of
nature with one another.
International Law is not positive law. The duties it imposes are only enforced by
moral sanctions, or fear of incurring the wrath of more powerful sovereign(s).
Lecture VI (cont.)
None of these weaken the governments status as sovereign because it does not
habitually obey the commands of another.
Directly
Lecture VI (cont.)
Austin does not buy the concept of separation of the powers of sovereignty (executive
(including judicial), and legislative), because under any known system, each distinct
party to which those powers may be given also exercise other types of powers.
The supreme are the infinite political powers of the sovereign partly exercised and
partly dormant, but nevertheless existing.
The subordinate are those portions of the supreme powers of sovereignty which are
delegated to political subordinates as ministers and trustees.
Lecture VI (cont.)
It is completely independent, or
It is jointly sovereign with the more powerful, and therefore simply a constituent
member of the more powerful sovereign.
A System of Confederated States wherein each state is still truly sovereign, and the
acts of the central government are simply adopted, and enforced by, each state
without creating one single political society.
Lecture VI (cont.)
Lecture VI (cont.)
Liberty is, therefore, simply those areas which the sovereign has chooses to leave
within the discretion of the individual, realizing that the sovereign may at any time
abridge that liberty at its discretion.
Those who divide governments between free and despotic are simply lovers of
democracy.
The true distinction is not the power of the government, for they all truly have
complete powers, rather whether it is so constituted as to be beneficial to the people.
A sovereign is not subject to the civil law, because he would thus be subject to
himself.
Lecture VI (cont.)
There are no sovereign rights with respect to the sovereigns relation to its people.
The proper end of every government is the happiness of the people, achieving this
happiness promotes obedience, which is also promoted by:
Custom
Habit
The tactic or actual consent of the people is not the true origin or permanence of
government only that they wish to escape a state of nature by living in a political
society and therefore tolerate whatever government exists.
Lecture VI (cont.)
1. The rights and duties of the government and governed flow only from the law of
God, positive law, and positive morality.
3. The covenant would not bind original or following subjects, or original or following
sovereigns since there is no positive law or sovereign to enforce that contract.
4. Religious rationales would bind both sovereign and subjects without a covenant,
but would not bind following sovereigns or subjects.
5. The extent to which the sovereign would be bound by the opinions or expectations
of its subjects will always be limited by:
The degree of clearness or precision with which they conceive the ends in which their
sentiments coincide.
8. Conquest
Lecture VI (cont.)
1. De jure and also de facto (lawful, right, just, and being obeyed)
4. Neither de facto nor de jure (not a government at all, but a former government
which one wishes still was)
In respect to positive law, the de jure distinction is without meaning, such distinction
is only appropriate for positive morality.
A sovereign established, is neither lawful nor unlawful with respect to its positive law,
and cannot be said to be legal or illegal. It simply is.