Sovereignty is a highly sophisticated, yet accessible introduction not only to the history of the concept but to its contemporary status. Using the method of conceptual history developed by German historians, Dieter Grimm outlines a complex journey whereby sovereignty became the self-representation of the early modern territorial state, overcoming both domestic and international competitors for the supremacy of political power, followed by developments in which the concept understood as unlimited by positive legality came to be reformulated under the limits of both constitutional and international law. Finally, he asks the question whether a yet again refurbished concept can keep some continuity with the classical notion as developed by Bodin and Hobbes, and yet preserve its relevance for an understanding of contemporary regimes, national and international. Not without some hesitation, he opts to keep the concept of sovereignty as indispensible for the legal equality and self determination of the main political actors of international law, namely territorial states, that still remain in his view more hospitable for democracy than supra national organizations or even non state federations.