SEOUL -- Let's start with the obvious but often overlooked topic of what isn't taking place in Iraq today. Commentary to the contrary, sovereignty is not being handed back to Iraqis on June 30; it isn't even on the table.
The United States, as the occupying power, never possessed sovereignty in the first place under international law. Sovereignty cannot be alienated (displaced) by an occupying power, so it cannot be transferred to a provisional government. Rather, sovereignty remains suspended until restored through elections of a government that reflects the popular will of its citizens and thus possesses legitimacy.
More fundamentally, sovereignty is an attribute of statehood that comes in two forms: the Louis XIV "etat, cest moi" variety, and popular sovereignty based on democratic and constitutional principles. But both are based on the assumption that the state in question is supreme within its borders. Clearly, this is not the case if it is colonized or occupied, or if the vestiges of colonialism or occupation remain beyond the formal legal transfer of power.
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