States and International Organizations in the Early 21st Century: Rethinking the Concept of Sovereignty

Abstract

The active participation of states as members in international organizations, including regional economic integration organizations, and the recent rapid growth in the number of such organizations, has necessitated renewed discussions of the idea of potential limitation of state sovereignty in the early 21^st century. The analysis of the texts of basic laws (constitutions) of a number of member-states of certain international organizations, as well as the contemporary doctrine of international law, draws us to the conclusion that the limitation of sovereignty today is quite possible on account of the transfer of sovereign powers from the state to the international organization. Meanwhile, the article justifies the impossibility of the transfer of state sovereignty to the international organization in its entirety.