Full Description
This handbook provides a toolbox of definitions and typologies to develop a theory of multilevel constitutionalism and subnational constitutions.
The volume examines systems with subnational entities that have full subnational constituent autonomy and systems where subnational constituent powers, while claimed by subnational governments, are incomplete or non-existent. Understanding why complete subnational constituent power exists or is denied sheds significant light on the status and functioning of subnational constitutions. The book deals with questions of how constitutions at multiple levels of a political system can co-exist and interact. The term 'multilevel constitutionalism', recognized as explaining how a supranational European constitution can exist alongside those of the Member States, is now used to capture dynamics between constitutions at the national, subnational and, where applicable, supranational levels. Broad in scope, the book encompasses many different types of multi-tiered systems world-wide to map the possible meanings, uses and challenges of subnational or state constitutions in a variety of political and societal contexts.
The book develops the building blocks of an explanatory theory of subnational constitutionalism and as such will be an essential reference for all those interested in comparative constitutional law, federalism and governance.
Contents
Subnational Constitutionalism: Defining subnational constitutions and self-constituent capacity
Subnational Constitutionalism in Argentina: Provincial autonomy in a uninational federation
Subnational Constitutionalism in Australia: State autonomy in a uninational federation
Subnational Constitutionalism in Austria: The pluralisation of homogeneity
Subnational constitutionalism in Belgium: A matter of abstained maturity
Subnational Constitutionalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Towering sub-national autonomy and a loose clamp of the central level to all intents and purposes
Subnational Constitutionalism in Brazil: The space of state constitutions for improving Brazilian federalism
Subnational Constitutionalism in Canada: A hysteretic approach to distinctive constitutional identities
Subnational Constitutionalism in Ethiopia: Constitutional déjà vu
Subnational Constitutionalism in Germany: Constitutional autonomy, unitarian federalism, and intertwined policy-making
Subnational Constitutionalism in India: Subnational constitutionalism or constitution within the constitution?
Subnational Constitutionalism in Italy: Unfulfilled Expectations?
Subnational Constitutionalism in Malaysia: Weak states in a strong federation
Subnational Constitutionalism in Mexico: Medium state autonomy in a centralized federation
Subnational Constitutionalism in South Africa: An empty promise
Subnational constitutionalism in Spain: Confluence of wills in a basic institutional norm
Subnational Constitutionalism in Switzerland: A sleeping beauty awaiting to be kissed
Subnational Constitutionalism in the United Kingdom: Constitutional statutes within the context of an uncodified constitution
Subnational Constitutionalism in the United States: Powerful states in a powerful federation
Conclusion: Nine hypotheses to explain variation in subnational constitutional autonomy
