Paper Title
Conflicts And The Weakening Of Sovereignty In International Law: A Case Study Of Liberia And Sierra Leone

Abstract
Fundamentally, in international law, the principle of state sovereignty is very paramount. This implies that, states under international law have certain inviolable rights inherent to statehood and are formally equal to all other states. But prior to the 20th century, absolute sovereignty which never literally existed with states, but within kingdoms as exclusive powers was vested in the Monarchs but nonetheless, the fiction of the absolute sovereignty of equal states gained hold and came to be recognized as the foundation of modern in international relations as theory. However, with the advent of the 20th century, absolute sovereignty started to weak especially with the successive measures that have been taken to create a system of “collective security” in international relations which arguably weakens the concept of absolute sovereignty. Further afield, there is also the issue of increased interdependence of states at many levels, including trade levels, information diplomacy, and state membership of international organizations as well as the establishment of international Tribunals. It is against this background therefore, that the paper made use of secondary data to examine how conflicts and issues of collective security has affected or weakened sovereignty in international law. The focus of the paper will be within the time frame of the Liberian civil war and the Sierra-Leone crisis. Keywords - Absolute Sovereignty, Conflicts, International law, State.