15 November 2024
Political Resistance and Two Dirty Words
On November 6, Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election in a landslide, winning all Swing States and the popular vote. Given the dire consequences of Trump’s second presidency looming on the horizon, it would be natural for Democrats’ reactions to include some of English’s finest swear words, the f- and the s- words in particular. But besides swearing being impolite, there are at least two other dirty words to consider: Federalism and (State) Sovereignty. It is time to use them for progressive purposes and shield Democrat states against excessive overreach by the Trump administration, as some had already suggested during the first Trump presidency Continue reading >>
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07 April 2024
Reimagining Indian Federalism
As India’s new dominant party system coalesced after 2014, the country entered a phase of centralisation. India has always had federalism with a strong centre, but from the late 1980s to the mid-2010s, political and economic regionalism and national coalition governments encompassing national and regional parties produced an appearance of deepening federalisation. Since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in over 25 years to win an outright parliamentary majority, the twin pillars of political centralisation under a dominant party system and economic concentration, have once again drawn attention to the contested nature of India’s federal contract. Continue reading >>
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08 February 2024
Subnational Politics and the Path of National Democracies
In Germany and the United States, political factions have emerged in the last decade that have challenged some of the core institutions, conventions, and norms of liberal democratic life. In both countries, subnational units of government—states or municipalities—have operated as staging grounds for parties or factions of parties that reject some or all necessary elements of democratic practice. While they have used different institutional tactics to this end, many basic elements of political strategy can be observed across the two cases. Continue reading >>
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13 February 2023
A New Battlefront for Scottish Nationalists in the United Kingdom
By blocking the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, the UK Government is showing that it is now ready to police the boundaries of devolved competence more robustly, especially when it believes legislation is being used deliberately to veer into reserved matters. It is perhaps also now asserting a more homogeneous approach to fundamental human rights values, an assertion which is the hallmark of other federal systems. The current debate also exposes that the radical devolution of so many powers to sub-state institutions over the past two decades without serious thought being given for the potential impact of this process upon the maintenance of coherent state policy was perhaps ill-advised and requires correction. Continue reading >>09 January 2023
Political Terror in the Shade of Bolsonarism
The attacks of Bolsonarist supporters on democracy and the rule of law in Brazil have reached an extent that has never been witnessed in Brazil since the promulgation of the Constitution of 1988. On 8 January 2023, emulating the events of 6 January 2020 in the USA, a mob of 3,000 Bolsonaro supporters invaded and destroyed the buildings of the National Congress, the Federal Supreme Court, and the Presidency of the Republic in Brazil, which are all located in the famous quarter known as the “Three Branches Square”. In a way, the invasion of the US Capitol has been more tragic, given that human lives have been lost. But there is a sense in which the assault in Brazil was more devastating from a symbolic point of view. Continue reading >>
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21 October 2022
Why a United States Supreme Court Case About Pig Farming Matters So Much
The United States Supreme Court is currently considering a case that could have major implications for animal welfare, public health, the environment, and the balance between state and federal power. The case is called National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, and the Court heard oral arguments on October 11, 2022. The case concerns whether a state has the right to ban the sale of products made in ways that harm animals and public health. Continue reading >>23 December 2020
Opposing an Idle Federal Government
Last week, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court ruled that mandatory vaccination is constitutional and that states and municipalities may implement vaccination plans if the federal government does not do so. Deciding on five cases altogether, the court strengthened Brazilian federalism in the face of a federal government that remains largely inactive in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading >>
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01 November 2020
The U.S. Supreme Court and the 2020 Election
As Election Day looms, Americans are heading to the polls, and they are also heading to the courts. In the past two weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has issued rulings in five challenges to election-related practices in different states, and there are surely more to come. The litigation has exposed disagreements on the high court, and on lower courts as well, about where responsibility lies for ensuring elections play out fairly and in accordance with law. Of all of the opinions flying around, the one to get the most attention is perhaps a concurrence from Justice Kavanaugh that invokes Bush v. Gore, in which the Court stopped a recount in Florida and thereby decided the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. Continue reading >>
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13 May 2020
Is there a space for federalism in times of emergency?
In many legal cultures, federalism is the real “F word”. It stands for inequality, privileges, inefficiency. For many, there seems to be an inherent contradiction between the obvious requirement of a coordinated line of command in case of emergency and a pluralistic territorial structure. A closer look at the comparative practice shows a different picture. Has federalism really been an obstacle to effective decision-making? Or rather the opposite? Continue reading >>30 April 2020
Concentration of Powers in the Federal Executive: The Application of Emergency Powers in Switzerland
Were we ready for the crisis? I do not mean whether Switzerland had enough hospital beds and ventilators, but whether its Federal Constitution was ready. Arguably, the former are vital, and as regards the latter, Switzerland is under no suspicion of losing its quality as a democracy and a Rechtsstaat. Still, the constitutional questions raised by the Corona crisis are troubling. The federal government is applying emergency powers unheard of since WW2, and which were previously unimaginable for most. Legal scholars are only starting to grapple the full implications of the crisis. Continue reading >>
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