AUSTIN'S THEORY OF SOVEREIGNTY of Kin The Juristic analysis of sovereignty has a history stretching back found and Roman empire. The Roman jurists worked out a theory of Imperium and Athe source of law in the will of the prince. In modern times the development of the theory of sovereignty coincided roughly with the growth of the State in e andi Bodin, through Hobbes and Bentham, this een power, functions and prestige. From his on ic idea reached its climax in John Austin as contained in lectures were Jurisprudence, published in 1832. Austin endeavoured to build up an exact uristic and to present a clear outline of the organisation of a as government's legal power 23 The theory of sovereignty, as enunciated by Austin, depends mainly upon in his view of the nature of law. Law, according to Austin, is a giv perior to an inferior. 24 From this definition of law he develops his theory 0f sovereignty in the following words 6 If a determinate human superior, not in the habit of obedience to a like receives habitual obedience, from the bulk of a given society determinate human superior is sovereign in that society, and that society