ABSTRACT
The sovereignty of law is one of the fundamental principles of the Laws. Governments must be accommodated to law, and not law to governments. If sovereignty is thus vested in law, it follows that we need not expect to find any political authority in the State of the Laws which corresponds to the sovereign of a modern community. No body of magistrates; no councilor senate; no assembly, however broad, will be other than subordinate to the rule of law. l That, at any rate, is the thesis of the Laws until we come to the twelfth book; and the twelfth book, for a number of reasons, must be considered as an addendum or postscript, which does not tally with the earlier books, and needs to be considered by itself. There is a further reason for the absence of any sovereign body or person from the State of the Laws. The constitution of that State is, ex hypothesi, to be mixed. It is to reconcile monarchy with democracy, the principle of knowledge with the principle of liberty. A mixed constitution can hardly contain a single sovereign authority. If it is impossible to say of the constitution of Sparta whether i tis a monarchy or an aristocracy, a tyranny or a democracy, it must be equally impossible to say of the State which Plato builds in the Laws that it is ruled by anyone sovereign authority.
