ABSTRACT
The modern independent nation-state that emanated from the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 was based on an iron curtain-like conception of the state that enshrined the external and internal autonomy of the state. From the seventeenth century to the early part of the nineteenth century, state sovereignty was sacred and retained its conception as supreme authority, granting a state exclusive jurisdiction and control over all objects and subjects in its territory, to the exclusion of any other influence. However, during the later part of nineteenth century, industrialisation and market expansion required the post-Westphalian nation-state to forego self-sufficiency and to cooperate internationally to maintain domestic sustainability. The notion of international justice now points towards a sphere that, though controlled by states, is ineffaceably external to power. The far-reaching transformation of the social and political landscape in the last century has been accompanied by a correlative transformation of the concept and practice of sovereignty through the development of an international penal process.
