Tag: Federalism
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Weekly round-up of events
This week’s event announcement is below. ~~~ The Putney Debates 2018: Powers to the Peoples: Electoral Reform and a Federal UK? 2-7.30pm, Friday 2 February 2018 St Mary’s Church, High St, Putney, SW15 1SN As the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland strives for unity in the face of Brexit, the Oxford…
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Peter Oliver: Canada @ 150
Editors’ note: 2017 is a significant landmark in the constitutional history of Canada. It is 150 years since Canadian Confederation was brought about by the passage of the British North America Act 1867. To mark this anniversary the blog joins with the IACL blog in publishing a post by Professor Peter Oliver of Ottawa University in which…
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Ronan McCrea: Is the United Kingdom a Mini-EU?
The United Kingdom is to leave the European Union, partly in order to protect the right to self-government of the UK as a nation state as expressed through the sovereignty of the Westminster Parliament. Interestingly, the reaction to the decision to leave the EU reveals the degree to which through a combination of devolution with…
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Nick barber: The Brexiteers: Right Answer, Wrong Question
Cross-posted from I-CONnect blog. Towards the end of the 1990s I was invited to a workshop just outside of Berlin at which a group of young academics gathered to discuss the future of the European Union. The workshop was funded by a German think-tank that had generously, if perhaps misguidedly, provided significant amounts of food…
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Stephen Tierney: Can the Union Survive the Election?
Thursday’s election leaves the Anglo-Scottish Union on the brink. A combination of the first past the post system and the crystallisation of increasingly sharp attitudinal differences between England and Scotland has produced starkly divergent political systems which are now set to clash in the House of Commons. A revitalised Conservative Party will form a government…
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Mark Elliott: Scotland has voted “no”. What next for the UK constitution?
After a very long — and at times electrifying — campaign, a modest but decisive majority of those who participated in the referendum on Scottish independence have voted “no”. In one sense, this is the end of the process — even if, bearing in mind the main UK parties’ still-to-be-fulfilled promises about further devolution, it…
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Scott Stephenson: Federalism and Liberty in Australia Through the Lenses of Same-Sex Marriage and Organised Crime
American constitutional scholarship is replete with discussions of the relationship between federalism and liberty. Some argue that a plurality of jurisdictions creates competition, allowing citizens to ‘vote with their feet’ thereby providing a potentially more effective means of resisting oppression—relocation—than attempting to challenge state action at the ballot box or in the courtroom. Federalism can…
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Paul Kildea: Reforming Australia’s federation: The People Lead the Way
As another fractious year in politics comes to an end, Griffith University has released the results of its third biennial survey on how Australians view their federal system. It reveals a public that is losing faith in both the current structure of the federation and the ability of different tiers of government to work together…
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Paul Daly: Clinging to Gun Data
On the afternoon of December 6, 1989, Marc Lépine entered the École Polytechnique in Montréal. Over the course of about 30 minutes, Lépine prowled the corridors, classrooms and cafeteria, rifle in hand. He shot and killed fourteen women before turning his gun on himself. Fourteen others were wounded. That horrific event still has significant political…
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Nicholas Aroney: Federal Models for a U.K. Constitution?
When the referendum really comes, the sovereign Parliament must go. But whether for good or for evil, the referendum, in principle at least, seems to be coming. – C. H. McIlwain, The High Court of Parliament and Its Supremacy (1910), xv. [N]ow we are witnessing something that would have seemed almost impossible a few years…