Used in politics and law it is a term to refer to the collective or community of an ethnic group, a nation, to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty.
Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that “peoples” have the right to self-determination.
Particularly through international Indigenous peoples rights, it was defined what a people constitutes (e.g. shared culture etc.).
Both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire used the Latin term Senatus Populusque Romanus, (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 autarchy, 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.
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. 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.
