This research group will provide a forum for the analytical and comparative study of existing and developing subnational constitutions and constitution-like documents in component units.
Focus
This research group will provide a forum for the analytical and comparative study of existing and developing subnational constitutions and constitution-like documents in component units. Emerging questions include:
- what counts as a “constitution”;
- how such constitutions differ from federal constitutions and each other;
- how federal constitutions define the space allocated for subnational constitutions (constitutional competency) and methods of policing boundaries;
- how subnational units have developed and changed their subnational constitutions;
- whether, and why, component units have or have not utilized their constitutional competency;
- what techniques of subnational constitutional judicial interpretation are used by national or subnational courts.
Challenging areas of interest also include analysis, comparison and preliminary evaluation of methods of replacing, revising, or amending subnational constitutions; constitutional politics at the subnational level; rights protections beyond those in the federal constitution; and processes of interpreting and enforcing subnational constitutions. The Research Group will encourage, support and make available the newly-developing literature and expertise of scholars and practitioners in subnational constitutional law. The Research Group will act as a clearinghouse for individuals and organizations interested in subnational constitutions and, hopefully, organize meetings to explore mutual interests.
Publications
- Patricia Popelier and Maja Sahadžić, Constitutional Asymmetry in Multinational Federalism: Managing Multinationalism in Multi-tiered Systems (Palgrave 2019)
- Giacomo Delledonne and Giuseppe Martinico (eds.), The Canadian Contribution to a Comparative Law of Secession: Legacies of the Quebec Secession Reference (Palgrave 2019). The two editors, including myself, presented the book in an Author Interview: https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/just-published/2019/1/23/author-interview-the-canadian-contribution-to-a-comparative-law-of-secession-legacies-of-the-quebec-secession-reference.
- Anna Gamper (ed.), Representing Regions, Challenging Bicameralism, a special issue of Perspectives on Federalism (2018), available at http://on-federalism.eu/attachments/004_Volume%2010%20-%20issue%202%20-%202018.pdf
- Nikos Skoutaris, Territorial Pluralism in Europe: Vertical Separation of Powers in the EU and its Member States (Hart Publishing 2019)
Events
ConState: 30 Years of State Constitutions in Brazil
An event to think about the challenges of Brazilian federalism and the capacity for innovation, governance and possibilities of a legal framework capable of solving the problems of effectiveness rights at the state level. Therefore, we have created the ConState in order to improve the debate on the Brazilian state constitutional law. ConState is a junction of the word “Constitution” and “State” that, at the same time, is a Portuguese verb (“constatar”) and it means the action of observing, ascertaining, investigating and verifying. These are typical actions of academic researchers. So, ConState is a place to build thoughts on the challenges and current perspectives of state constitutions in the context of Brazilian federalism. The Brazilian Center for State Constitutional Studies (ConState) will hold its first conference, the Constate 2019, and it will take place in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, from September 4th to 6th. It is an organization by The Catholic University of Pernambuco in partnership with The Legislative Branch of The State of Pernambuco.
Further details here: https://constate.org/
Convenors :
- Prof. Patricia Popelier
University of Antwerp, Belgium -
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - http://www.uantwerpen.be/patricia-popelier
Co-Convenor
- Dr Giacomo Delledonne
SantAnna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa -
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Nicholas Aroney
University of Queensland -
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- Patricia Popelier, Nicholas Aroney and Giacomo Delledonne edited a Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism published in September 2021: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Subnational-Constitutions-and-Constitutionalism/Popelier-Delledonne-Aroney/p/book/9780367510176.
- Meetings and conferences of the Constate project were held in Recife, Brazil in 2022 and 2023 (more information here: https://www.constate.org/). 2024 year's Constate conference will be held in Recife late in August.
- Maja Sahadžić, Asymmetry, Multinationalism and Constitutional Law
Managing Legitimacy and Stability in Federalist States (Routledge 2020), https://www.routledge.com/Asymmetry-Multinationalism-and-Constitutional-Law-Managing-Legitimacy/Sahadzic/p/book/9780367532109 - Benjamen Gussen, Axial Shift: City-Subsidiarity and the World System in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811369490
- Alice Valdesalici and Francesco Palermo (eds.), Comparing fiscal federalism (Brill 2018), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13597566.2019.1605597
- Erika Arban, Giuseppe Martinico and Francesco Palermo (eds.), Federalism and Constitutional Law: The Italian Contribution to Comparative Regionalism (Routledge 2021), https://www.routledge.com/Federalism-and-Constitutional-Law-The-Italian-Contribution-to-Comparative/Arban-Martinico-Palermo/p/book/9780367611736
- Yonatan T. Fessha and Karl Kössler(eds.), Federalism and the Courts in Africa: Design and Impact in Comparative Perspective (Routledge 2020),https://www.routledge.com/Federalism-and-the-Courts-in-Africa-Design-and-Impact-in-Comparative-Perspective/Fessha-Kossler/p/book/9780367266707
- James A. Gardner, "The Theory and Practice of Contestatory Federalism”, William & Mary Law Review, Vol. 60: 507-588 (2018).
- James A. Gardner, “Illiberalism and Authoritarianism in the American States”, American University Law Review, Vol. 70 (2021).
- Gonzalo Gabriel Carranza, "Límites al feudalismo en el federalismo argentino", Anuario Iberoamericano de Justicia Constitucional, Vol. 24: 269-297 (2020).
- Antonio Arroyo Gil & Gonzalo Gabriel Carranza, " La coerción federal en Alemania y sus precedentes", Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional, Vol. 120: 43-80 (2020).