The Westphalian system, also known as Westphalian sovereignty, is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory. The principle developed in Europe after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, based on the state theory of Jean Bodin and the natural law teachings of Hugo Grotius. It underlies the modern international system of sovereign states and is enshrined in the United Nations Charter, which states that "nothing ... shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state."[1]
According to the principle, every state, no matter how large or small, has an equal right to sovereignty.[2] Political scientists have traced the concept to the eponymous peace treaties which ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and Eighty Years' War (1568–1648). The principle of non-interference was then further developed in the 18th century. The Westphalian system reached its peak in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it has faced recent challenges from advocates of humanitarian intervention.[3] Efforts to curtail absolute sovereignty have met with substantial resistance by sovereigntist movements in multiple countries who seek to "take back control" from such transnational governance groups and agreements, restoring the world to pre-World War II norms of sovereignty.[4]
^"United Nations Charter, Chapter I: Purposes and Principles". United Nations. 26 June 1945. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
^Simpson, Gerry (2006). Great Powers and Outlaw States: Unequal Sovereigns in the International Legal Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521534901. The trajectory traced, in all this, describes a system developing out of the highly centralised and unequal relations that were the mark of the pre-Westphalian stage in international affairs to a Westphalian order in which the sovereign equality of states becomes a defining quality of the system.
^Bankas, Ernest K (2005). The State Immunity Controversy in International Law: Private Suits Against Sovereign States in Domestic Courts. Springer. ISBN 9783540256953. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
^Kallis, Aristotle (2018). "Populism, Sovereigntism, and the Unlikely Re-Emergence of the Territorial Nation-State" (PDF). Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences. 11 (3): 10,14. doi:10.1007/s40647-018-0233-z. S2CID 158092242.
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The Westphaliansystem, also known as Westphalian sovereignty, is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its...
is considered the seminal event in international law. The resulting Westphalian sovereignty is said to have established the current international legal...
territory).[citation needed] Before the Westphaliansystem, the closest geopolitical system was the "Chanyuan system" established in East Asia in 1005 through...
in the foreign one. Named after the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, the WestphalianSystem of state sovereignty, according to Bryan Turner, "made a more or less...
collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648)...
"America's Impact: The End of Empire and the Globalization of the WestphalianSystem", working paper, Princeton University, 2015, pp. 7–8 [permanent dead...
Sinocentric system was a hierarchical system of international relations that prevailed in East Asia before the adoption of the Westphaliansystem in modern...
multiple channels that connect societies exceeding the conventional Westphaliansystem of states. This manifests itself in many forms ranging from informal...
multiple channels that connect societies exceeding the conventional Westphaliansystem of states. This manifests itself in many forms ranging from informal...
institutions that have evolved since the Congress of Vienna based on the WestphalianSystem with its focus on the sovereignty of nations. Historically, the Prussian...
Order of precedence List of heads of state by diplomatic precedence Westphaliansystem Diplomatic rank Florian Mazel (2010). Féodalités, 888–1180. Paris:...
intervention capacity, more transparent, fairer, and more democratic; the Westphaliansystem, the very nature of states along with the role they play with regard...
Haider (2022). The Wahhabi Political Doctrines in the Middle Eastern WestphalianSystem: The Evolution of the Concept of Jihad in the Three Saudi-Wahhabi...
current events and includes analysis of the Peace of Westphalia and the Westphaliansystem. He has written on the Battle of Jena and philosophical ideas such...
system, the three state association league systems of the Lower Rhine Football Association, the Middle Rhine Football Association and the Westphalian...
the Napoleonic wars. Large numbers of Westphalian troops fought in the Russian campaign of 1812; the Westphalian Guards heroically but unsuccessfully charged...
Smith. "National Identity and the Idea of European Unity" International Affairs, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 55–76 Westphaliansystem v t e v t e...
or otherwise), which have been the key agent of governance in the Westphaliansystem of national states. The Internet is often cited as not only one of...
The Westphalian Lowland, also known as the Westphalian Basin is a flat landscape that mainly lies within the German region of Westphalia, although small...
interstate system of relations. The Peace of Westphalia is said to have ended attempts to impose supranational authority on European states. The "Westphalian" doctrine...
Upper Rhenish Circle, the Electoral Rhenish Circle and the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle (very roughly equivalent to the present-day German federal state...
Prussian, Livonian and Swedish (or East Baltic): 120 quarter "Westphalian": Rhine-Westphalian and Netherlands (including Flanders) (or Rhineland): 120 quarter...
does not need to be a sovereign unit. The preeminent polities today are Westphalian states and nation-states, commonly referred to as countries. A polity...
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