The Sovereignty Conflict: Reconciling State Autonomy With Universal Human Rights In A Fragmenting World
Devyani Kunwar & Shashank Shekhar Singh, New Law College, Bharati Vidyapeeth University
ABSTRACT
This article looks at the core issue within modern international law called the "sovereignty conflict." It's the big clash between Westphalian state sovereignty, which stops other countries from interfering in domestic matters, and the idea that everyone's human rights are more important and apply globally. The piece drops into the legal roots of this disagreement, like the UN Charter’s Article 2(7) and human rights treaties such as the ICCPR and ICESCR. It also maps how the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle grew in popularity but then led to a big pause in action.
The article uses recent examples to show how the usual defence of state independence is getting challenged. It looks at how universal jurisdiction is used in European courts against state actors, pushback from regional human rights tribunals, transnational digital rights issues, and transboundary climate lawsuits. The paper concludes that we won't see one approach succeeding over the other. Instead, the future of international law involves continuous changes in a world with many nuclei of power.
Keywords: sovereignty conflict, Article 2(7) UN Charter, Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Extraterritorial Jurisdiction, ICCPR, ICESCR
