 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOVEREIGNTY

Ø  Sovereignty is permanent, exclusive, comprehensive, inalienable, absolute and unified
Ø  Permanence - So long as the state itself exists, sovereignty continues without interruption.
Ø  Exclusive - There can be but one supreme power in the state. Within the state, there is no other power that possesses equal or superior authority to it
Ø  Comprehensiveness - Sovereign power extends over all persons, associations, and things within such territorial limits except those over which the state has voluntarily consented to waive the exercise of its jurisdiction.
Ø  Inalienability - An attribute of the state by virtue of which it cedes away any of its essential elements without self-destruction.
Ø  Absolutism - Sovereignty is a primary power. It does not derive its power from anything, There is no other body that determines the nature and the extent of the power as a matter of legal right.

Ø  Unity - Sovereignty cannot be divided without producing several wills of the people, which is inconsistent with the notiion of sovereignty.