Legal '', 1830 by
Eugène Delacroix Chapter One, Article One of the
Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to
self-determination. Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of
Indigenous peoples (
peoples, as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in
indigenous people), does not automatically provide for
independent sovereignty and therefore
secession. Indeed, judge
Ivor Jennings identified the inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as it requires pre-defining a said "people".
Constitutional Both the
Roman Republic and the
Roman Empire used the
Latin term , (the Senate and People of Rome). This term was fixed abbreviated (SPQR) to Roman legionary standards, and even after the
Roman Emperors achieved a state of total personal
autocracy, they continued to wield their power in the name of the Senate and People of Rome. The term
People's Republic, used since
late modernity, is a name used by
states, which particularly identify
constitutionally with a form of
socialism.
Judicial In
criminal law, in certain jurisdictions, criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of
the People. Several U.S. states, including
California,
Illinois, and
New York, use this style. Citations outside the jurisdictions in question usually substitute the name of the state for the words "the People" in the case captions. Four states —
Massachusetts,
Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and
Kentucky — refer to themselves as
the Commonwealth in case captions and legal process. Other states, such as
Indiana, typically refer to themselves as
the State in case captions and legal process. Outside the United States, criminal trials in
Ireland and the
Philippines are prosecuted in the name of the people of their respective states. The political theory underlying this format is that criminal prosecutions are brought in the name of the
sovereign; thus, in these
U.S. states, the "people" are judged to be the sovereign, even as in the
United Kingdom and other dependencies of the
British Crown, criminal prosecutions are typically brought in the name of
the Crown. "The people" identifies the entire body of the
citizens of a jurisdiction invested with political power or gathered for political purposes.
Political In China, definitions of the people () by the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has shifted throughout the its history. At the
2nd National Congress held in 1922, it included the proletariat, peasants, and the bourgeoisie. Usage of the term dropped following the
Shanghai Massacre in 1927, with the term largely being replaced by the term masses (). The use of the term people increased again in 1935 following the establishment of the
Second United Front with the
Kuomintang. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the people as defined by the
Cihai dictionary, included "all the classes, strata, and social groups that participated in the resistance against the Japanese invasion". After the continuation of the
Chinese Civil War, it was redefined to "the people were all the classes, strata, and social groups that opposed imperialism, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, the landlord class, and the reactionary faction of the Kuomintang that represented these classes". The term was further redefined following the 1949
proclamation of the People's Republic of China. The
Charter of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference defines the people as "socialist laborers, builders of socialist undertakings, patriots who support socialism, and patriots who support the unity of the motherland and are committed to the
great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". == See also ==