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Political Science (Theory and Thought)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 1
2025 Jan (100 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 1 Political Science (Theory and Thought) 2025 Jan (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2025 Jan (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2025 Jan (100 marks) examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Define Sovereignty. Explain the kinds of sovereignty.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning and Latin root; four definitions (Bodin, Grotius, Blackstone, Austin); the features in brief; the kinds in seven pairs or groups: nominal and real, legal and political, popular, de jure and de facto, internal and external, with an example and a source for each; where sovereignty lies in India; the pluralist criticism; and a conclusion.
Introduction
Sovereignty is the supreme power of the state. It is the element that makes a state a state and distinguishes it from a province, a municipality or a club. The word comes from the Latin superanus, which means supreme. The theory of sovereignty was first worked out by Jean Bodin in his Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576).
Definitions
- Jean Bodin: "Sovereignty is supreme power over citizens and subjects, unrestrained by the laws."
- Blackstone: In every state there is "a supreme, irresistible, absolute, uncontrolled authority, in which the jura summi imperii, or the rights of sovereignty, reside."
- John Austin: "If a determinate human superior, not in a habit of obedience to a like superior, receive habitual obedience from the bulk of a given society, that determinate superior is sovereign in that society."
- Garner puts it in two senses: the "original, supreme, and unlimited power of the state to impose its will upon all persons, associations, and things within its jurisdiction", and "the independence of the state from foreign control".
Features in brief
Sovereignty is absolute within the state and permanent as long as the state lasts. It is universal over all persons and associations, and exclusive, since there can be only one. It is also inalienable, indivisible and imprescriptible. These features apply most fully to legal sovereignty.
The kinds of sovereignty
The word sovereignty is used in several senses. Each sense gives a "kind" of sovereignty. They are really different aspects or locations of the one supreme power.
1. Nominal (titular) sovereignty and real sovereignty
Nominal sovereignty belongs to a ruler who has the title of sovereign but no real power. The British monarch is the standard example. Laws are made in the King's name, but the King acts on the advice of ministers. Bagehot said a constitutional monarch has only "three rights: the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn."
Real sovereignty belongs to the person or body that actually exercises supreme power. In Britain this is the Cabinet, backed by a majority in Parliament. In India, the President is the formal head, while real executive power lies with the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.
2. Legal sovereignty
Legal sovereignty is "the lawyer's conception of sovereignty", in Garner's words: the supreme law-making power whose commands the courts will enforce. Dicey stated it for Britain: Parliament has "the right to make or unmake any law whatever", and "no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament".
It has three features. It is determinate, a definite person or body. It speaks in the form of law. And it is what the courts enforce. The British Parliament once even prolonged its own term from three to seven years by an Act of 1716.
3. Political sovereignty
Behind the legal sovereign stands another power. Garner calls it a power "legally unknown", yet one "to whose mandates the legal sovereign must in practice bow and whose will must ultimately prevail in the state." This is political sovereignty. In a narrow sense it is the electorate. In a wider sense it is the whole people who shape public opinion.
Dicey explained the relation: the electors "can in the long run always enforce their will". If Parliament defies the voters, the voters replace it at the next election. So legal and political sovereignty are two sides of one power. In a pure democracy they coincide.
4. Popular sovereignty
Popular sovereignty is the doctrine that all power belongs to the people, who create government and may change it. Locke held that "there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the legislative, when they find the legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them." Rousseau made the people, acting through the general will, the sovereign itself. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) declared that governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed".
Its weakness is that "the people" is vague. Garner warns that the will of the people expressed outside legal channels is not legally sovereign. The doctrine becomes precise only when a constitution says who votes and how.
5. De jure and de facto sovereignty
De jure sovereignty is sovereignty by legal right. De facto sovereignty is sovereignty in fact, held by whoever is actually obeyed, whether or not he has a lawful title. After a successful coup, the new ruler is de facto sovereign. The ousted lawful government, perhaps in exile, remains de jure sovereign. Usually a de facto ruler seeks to become de jure through a new constitution, an election or recognition. In international law, states often grant de facto recognition first and de jure recognition later.
6. Internal sovereignty
Internal sovereignty is the supremacy of the state over all persons and associations within its territory. Its law prevails over every other will. In India, article 245(1) provides that "Parliament may make laws for the whole or any part of the territory of India".
7. External sovereignty
External sovereignty is the independence of the state from outside control. It is shown in making treaties, war and peace, sending ambassadors, and acquiring or ceding territory. Article 2(1) of the UN Charter rests the Organisation on "the sovereign equality of all its Members". In In re Berubari Union and Exchange of Enclaves, AIR 1960 SC 845, the Supreme Court said that under international law "two of the essential attributes of sovereignty are the power to acquire foreign territory as well as the power to cede national territory in favour of a foreign State".
| Kind | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal | Title without real power | The British King; India's President in form |
| Real | Actual supreme power | Cabinet with a parliamentary majority |
| Legal | Supreme law-making power enforced by courts | British Parliament |
| Political | Power the legal sovereign must obey in practice | The electorate |
| Popular | All power belongs to the people | Preamble: "WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA" |
| Kind | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| De jure | Sovereignty by legal right | A lawful government, even in exile |
| De facto | Sovereignty in fact | A regime that has seized power |
| Internal | Supremacy within | Parliament's law-making power |
| External | Independence without | Treaty-making, membership of the UN |
Where sovereignty lies in India
No organ of the Indian State is legally unlimited. Parliament's laws must keep within the Constitution, and the courts strike down laws that violate fundamental rights (article 13(2)). Even the amending power under article 368 cannot destroy the basic structure, as held in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, AIR 1973 SC 1461. The States are not sovereign either: in State of West Bengal v. Union of India, AIR 1963 SC 1241, the Court held that "it would not be correct to maintain that absolute sovereignty remains vested in the States". So legal sovereignty in India rests in the Constitution, and popular sovereignty in the people who gave it to themselves.
The pluralist criticism
Pluralists deny that the state alone is supreme. Associations such as churches and trade unions also command loyalty. Laski wrote that "it would be of lasting benefit to political science if the whole concept of sovereignty were surrendered." The criticism shows that sovereignty is limited in practice by public opinion, associations and international law. But every legal system still needs a final authority, so the concept survives.
Conclusion. Sovereignty is the supreme power of the state. Bodin defined it as power "unrestrained by the laws", and Austin as the authority habitually obeyed by the bulk of society. It appears in several kinds: nominal and real, legal and political, popular, de jure and de facto, internal and external. These are not separate sovereigns but different aspects of one supreme power. In India legal sovereignty lies in the Constitution and political sovereignty in the people, and no organ of the State is above the basic structure.
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