ABSTRACT
It is now time to return to the earlier distinction between political and legal sovereignty and to examine afresh what value, if any, it has. It is here that the difficulties in the notion of legal sovereignty arise. But after the break authors sooner or later develop afresh the habit of obedience to a different authority, and its commands in their turn become recognised as laws. But they begin to talk about legal sovereignty only when this habit has been definitely established. A problem arises when they consider the possible case of a law being passed by the legal sovereign or the recognised legislative authority and then being disregarded by the people universally or so widely that it ceases to be of any effect. But if an attempt were ever made to revive and enforce such a law he would probably manage to find a way round it.
