 Identifying the matters over which sovereign states have, or should have, ultimate authority is a difficult task in both an explanatory and normative sense. An enduring view is that the sovereignty of the State is absolute; a sovereign state is the final arbiter in all domestic matters, with limitations to such absolute sovereignty permissible only where the state has consented to them. Under this view, the subject matter of state sovereignty covers all legal and political matters that relate to a state’s territory and people. Hobbes is the early modern thinker most commonly associated with this all-encompassing conception of sovereignty. This interpretation of the few brief passages on international relations in the Leviathan is questioned by some scholars (Malcolm 2002), but it remains the foundation for theories of absolute sovereignty in international political thought.