This chapter focuses on the elusive concept of sovereignty. Sovereignty is more aptly conceived of as a normative term than as a factual description of any given state of affairs. It is common to distinguish between state and popular sovereignty. The former is embedded in the law of the peoples, whereas the latter has references to the UN Convention on Human Rights and democratic constitutions. In today’s interdependent world, the states’ ability to assert sovereignty as independence is greatly curtailed. Many sovereign decisions are dictated by the force of necessity, such as when globalisation forces a country to change its tax regime to attract investments. Even when the need to take action is imposed by another country, we do not necessarily say that the country facing the imposition lacks sovereignty. When the US imposes special security requirements on travellers to the country, other countries have had to adapt or close their airports for travel to the US. Traditionally dominant countries like the UK may have other experiences and attitudes to external constraints than traditionally less influential countries like Norway, but from the point of view of sovereignty their situation in relation to globalisation is the same.

In the following, we approach the assessment of sovereignty from a legal perspective. There is a large body of literature on sovereignty from a political science perspective, which either treats it as a normative – regulatory ‒ term or focuses on the aspect of power, which brings it closer to autonomy and the actual ability to rule oneself. We will address these dimensions in the next chapter. This chapter provides a legal reading of sovereignty in relation to the Norway model.

A state may undertake obligations under public international law without giving up any part of its sovereignty. It is not even necessary that the state has voluntarily agreed to undertake the obligation. Customary international law is binding even on sovereign states. What does raise problems is when other institutions than organs of the state have power to enact or enforce obligations within the state. Sovereignty can thus be defined as the exclusive power of state organs to take decisions with binding effect within the state.