3.3 Political and Legal Sovereignty

Dicey's classic distinction (formulated for England): Legal sovereigntyPolitical sovereigntyMeaningThe body with final legal law-making power — its every act is lawThe body behind the law — whose will the legal sovereign must ultimately obeyIn Englandthe Queen-in-Parliamentthe electorate (public opinion)AttributeFormal, identifiable, legally illimitableReal, diffuse, legally invisibleEffect of defiancenone — its word is lawpolitical destruction — parliament that defies the electorate is dismissed at the polls The two in dynamic relation: the legal sovereign is the conduit, the political sovereign the reservoir. Parliament may legally ignore a million-strong street movement — politically it cannot (2046 BS: the legally omnipotent partyless system bowed to the political sovereign in the streets; the interim legal order was then reconstituted). Related distinctions to carry in the same answer: 1. De jure vs de facto sovereignty — lawful title vs actual controlling power (a junta may hold de facto power; the constitution may keep de jure sovereignty elsewhere). 2. Internal vs external (3.1.B). 3. Popular vs parliamentary (Rousseau vs Dicey). Nepali mapping: legal sovereignty under the 2072 Constitution lies in the constituted law- making processes (Federal Parliament within its Schedule 5 competence; the people in amendment and referendum procedures); political sovereignty lies in the people — the Preamble's "We the people of Nepal". The House-dissolution litigation (2020–21) was precisely a collision over who may claim to speak…