Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

SOUNDING IN DAMAGES 1108

SOWNE

state in which its faculties of perception and judgment are ordinarily well developed, and not impaired by mania, insanity, or demen tia. SOUNDING IN DAMAGES. When an action is brought, not for the recovery of lands, goods, or sums of money, (as is the case in real or mixed actions or the personal action of debt or detinue,) but for damages only, as in covenant, trespass, etc., the action is said to be "sounding in damages." Steph. PI. 116. SOUNDNESS. General health; freedom from any permanent disease. 1 Car. & M. 291. SOURCES OP THE LAW. The ori gins from which particular positive laws de rive their authority and coercive force. Such are constitutions, treaties, statutes, usages, and customs. In another sense, the authoritative or re liable works, records, documents, edicts, etc., to which we are to look for an understanding of what constitutes the law. Such, for ex ample, with reference to the Koman law, are the compilations of Justinian and the treatise of Gaius; and such, with reference to the common law, are especially the ancient re ports and the works of such writers as Brac ton, Littleton, Coke, "Fleta," and others. SOUS SEING PRIVE. In French law. Under private signature; under the private signature of the parties. A contract or in strument thus signed is distinguished from an "authentic act," which is formally con cluded before a notary or judge. Civil Code La. art. 2240. SOUTH. L. Fr. Under. Bendloe, 33. SOUTH SEA FUND. The produce of the taxes appropriated to pay the interest of such part of the English national debt as was advanced by the South Sea Company and its annuitants. The holders of South Sea an nuities bave been paid off, or have received other stock in lieu thereof. 2 Steph. Comm. 578. SOVEREIGN. A chief ruler with su preme power; a king or other ruler with lim ited power. In English law. A gold coin of Great Britain, of the value of a pound sterling. SOVEREIGN POWER, or SOVER EIGNTY. That power in a state to which none other is superior or equal.

ence to them, and which are not themselves subject to any other (or paramount) state in any respect. The state is said to be semi sovereign only, and not sovereign, when in any respect or respects it is liable to be con trolled (like certain of the states in India) by a paramount government, (e. g., by the Brit ish empire.) Brown. "In the intercourse of nations, certain states have a position of entire independence of others, and can perform all those acts which it is possible for any state to perform in this particular sphere. These same states have also entire power of self government; that is, of independence upon all other states as far as their own territory and citi zens not living abroad are concerned. No foreign power or law can have control except by conven tion. This power of independent action in exter nal and internal relations constitutes complete sov ereignty. " Wools. Pol Science, i. 204. SOVEREIGNTY. The possession of sovereign power; supreme political author ity; paiamount control of the constitution and fiame of government and its administra tion; the self-sufficient source of political power, fiom which all specific political pow ers are derived; the international independ ence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs with out foreign dictation; also a political society, or state, which issoveieign and independent. "The freedom of the nation has its correlate in the sovereignty of the nation. Political sover eignty is the assertion of the self-determinate will of the organic people, and in this there is the man ifestation of its freedom It is in and through the determination of its sovereignty that the order of the nation is constituted and maintained." Mul ford, Nation, p. 129. "If a determinate human superior, not in a habit of obedience to a like superior, receive habitual obedience from the bulk of a given society, that de terminate superior is sovereign in that society, and the society (including the superior) is a society political and independent. " Aust Jur. SOVERTIE. In old Scotch law. Surety. Skene. SOWLEGROVE. February; so called in South Wales. Cowell. SOWMING AND ROWMING. In Scotch law. Terms used to expiess the form by which the number of cattle brought upon a common by those having a servitude of pastuiage may be justly proportioned to the rights of the different persons possessed of the servitude. Bell. SOWNE. In old English law. To be leviable. An old exchequer term applied to sheriff's returns. 4 Inst. 107; Cowell; Spet man.

SOVEREIGN STATES. States whose Bubjects or citizens are in the habit of obedi

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