Latin for Lawyers

SOVEREIGN

SOVEREIGN [L. super / over, above, at the top] Applied to persons, sovereign means one who exercises supreme authority in a defined sphere, as the king of a nation. A person who is acknowledged to be the prime leader of a group of people. Applied to states or nations, sover eignty defines a group of persons occupying a fixed territorial area, bound together by common laws and customs, having a single organized govern ment and recognized by other states and nations as having sole and integrated powers over such functions as commerce, taxation, etc. Sovereignty can exist at several levels. The United States is a sovereign nation . Each state is a sepa rate and independent sovereignty capable of making its own laws; the laws of any one state have no effect in any other state. Sovereignty is also the power to govern, i.e., to make and enforce laws. SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY The principle that a sovereign nation or state cannot be sued in its own courts unless it consents to be sued. The United States is immune from suit except under specific statutes such as the Federal Tort Claims Act. Also, the princi ple that one nation or state will respect the laws of another and will not inter fere in the internal affairs of another. See IMMUNITY SPECIAL [L. specialis / individual, particular, one of a kind] Possessing an unusual quality or character. Distinguished from others. Held in unusual esteem. Designed for or serving a particular purpose. Unique. A special administrator is appointed by a probate court to take charge of and preserve the assets of a decedent pending the appointment of an executor. A special agent is an agent appointed by a principal to carry out one or more specific acts or one or more specific transactions. A special appearance is an appearance by a party to an action for the sole and specific purpose of chal lenging the court’s jurisdiction; it is distinguished from a general appearance. (Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a party may challenge the court’s jurisdiction in the pleadings or by pre-trial motion.) A special assess ment is a tax levied for a specific local purpose or improvement upon private property, or the imposition of a charge upon the members of a group, e.g., a condominium or social club, for some specific purpose of benefit to the group. Special damages are damages measured not by the standards applied generally to other cases of its kind, but by the circumstances affecting the damaged party in some peculiar and individual way. A special election is one held to fill an office vacated earlier than the end of the stated term by circum stances such as the death or resignation of the incumbent. A special endorse ment on a check or note is one that specifies a particular payee, as opposed to a general endorsement or an endorsement to bearer.

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