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Vattel's writings on the sovereign and sovereignty and the need of the sovereign to
respect fundamental laws in which Vattel included the nation's Constitution, and also
when the People no longer owe obedience to the one claiming sovereignty if he breaks
the Contract with the People:
§ 46. The Prince ought to respect and support the fundamental laws.
. . . The prince ought to respect and support the fundamental laws. But when the
sovereign power is limited and regulated by the fundamental laws of the state, those laws
show the prince the extent and bounds of his power, and the manner in which he is to
exert it. The prince is therefore strictly obliged not only to respect, but also to support
them. The constitution and the fundamental laws are the plan on which the nation has
resolved to labor for the attainment of happiness; the execution is intrusted to the prince.
Let him religiously follow this plan; let him consider the fundamental laws as inviolable
and sacred rules; and remember that the moment he deviates from them, his commands
become unjust, and are but a criminal abuse of the power with which he is intrusted. He
is, by virtue of that power, the guardian and defender of the laws: and while it is his duty
to restrain each daring violator of them, ought he himself to trample them under foot?
§ 51. But the nation may curb a tyrant, and withdraw itself from his obedience.
. . . As soon as a prince attacks the constitution of the state, he breaks the contract which
bound the people to him; the people become free by the act of the sovereign, and can no
longer view him but as a usurper who would load them with oppression. This truth is
acknowledged by every sensible writer, whose pen is not enslaved by fear, or sold for
hire.
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