Plan-of-the-Convention Doctrine Law and Legal Definition
Plan of the convention doctrine refers to a principle that each state in the U.S. by ratifying the U.S. Constitution has consented to the possibility of being sued by each of the other states, and therefore has no immunity from such a suit under the 11th Amendment. If the Constitution itself contemplated the abrogation of sovereign immunity in a particular area, the Eleventh Amendment does not act to restore the states to their pre-ratification sovereign status. A state's ratification of the Constitution or admission into the Union on an "equal footing" with the other states resulted in a surrender by the states of certain pre-existing rights.
