 But in what sense is the state, as a sovereign entity, the originator (Urheber) of its own (positive) rights and powers and in what sense is it a unitary “subject of right” (Rechtsubjekt) of its own? The gist of Stein’s complex and somewhat ambivalent discussion (1925: 52–62[68–83]) is that “being a state means being a subject of rights” (1925: 119[172]), namely in the sense of a “juridical person”. Juridical persons are persons only in a derivative sense; they derive their ability to perform “free acts”, from fully-fledged individual (natural) persons (1925: 37[46]). The state, then, is the 