Nigeria, May 25 -- "Divine right is an old, established principle. It means that kings have the right - ordained by God - to act in any way they wish. Human-made laws are of no consequence beside the awesome power of God, and God's representative, namely the monarch." - Vija Prashad, Washington Bullets, 23 (2020)

Sovereignty is a complex concept in law and political science, but its primary attributes entail three inter-dependent monopolies. One is a monopoly of legitimate dispute resolution. The second is a monopoly of legitimate taxation; and the third is a monopoly of the instrumentality of legitimate violence.

Students of political science are most familiar with the last of these monopolies, but it is actually the first that guarant...