The concept of sovereignty and the transnational challenge: the case of global religions

The age of globalization has deeply impacted on a traditional concept in political and legal theory: the idea of sovereignty. The contemporary idea of the traditional summa potestas superiorem non recognoscens has required a new and different approach in the social sciences field. In this sense, sovereignty can be no longer seen as the bare attribute of the national State, this matter goes beyond national borders. This paper will address the issue by starting with a theoretical distinction between four different levels of political and juridical institutions: national, supranational, international and transnational. The first three levels will be considered as the traditional framework of power, namely the typical expression of a State-centred world. In regard to these three levels, State sovereignty maintains its centrality, because even the supranational and international levels presuppose the national one without completely overtaking it. On the contrary, the transnational level will be taken into account as the global level, by which new or old powers act inside the States, between the States and beyond the States. In particular, the paper will try to give some reference points in order to reconstruct the structure of a power that can be called “global”, as well as the variety of powers able to become so. This transnational level represents the ultimate challenge for the idea of sovereignty. Instead of the typical global powers considered by scholars ( economic and financial powers), we will deal with a peculiar power: global Religions. After an initial clarification of what ‘Religions’ are intended to be from this viewpoint, the paper will discuss the idea, proposed by eminent academics, to consider global religions as “new transnational nations”. Does this idea represent only a useful metaphor or a realistic perspective not to be underrated? May we make a persuasive comparison between the classic elements of a State (as the territory, the people, a hierarchical system of norms) and the contemporary structure of global religions? If this comparison can be successfully made, do States maintain any leftover space of sovereignty or should we better talk about a fading sovereignty and a rising counter-sovereignty? From a legal and political philosophy viewpoint, this paper attempts to redefine sovereignty as the result of complicated systems of old and new powers. Nevertheless, the transnational fragmentation and concentration of power in non-state subjects no longer allows talk about absolute powers: more appropriately, we are in the middle of a political clash between pretended sovereignties. It will be pointed out how global governance represents the attempt to flatten the clash, paradoxically recovering the unity of the traditional idea of sovereignty.