Modem societies, - like organized societies of all eras, - suffer from antithetical aspirations, from competing institutionalizations of that which is desirable, and that which, though unwelcome, is inevitable. Men clearly see the advantages of localism, of the self determination of small peoples, of l' amour du chocher uninhibited by imperial sovereign ty. At the same time men everywhere are seeing the clear necessity of bigness in organization of national effort. When the question is military organization no one has much doubt that strength derives from power ful union. The Swiss, to be sure, have continued independent not because of their power, but because of the convenience of their in dependent existence. In a world-society of titans, there must be members who are small, respected, independent and unfeared, available to be intermediaries. If Switzerland did not exist, it would have been necessary to invent her. But the power centers are those with the big battalions and the megatons of bombs; both demand great aggregates. Tomorrow's military power structure is calculated in the hundreds of millions of people. The world will afford only a few Switzerlands. The drive toward bigness is as inevitable in the economic world as in that of destructive machines. Economic problems in the next century, and in the next after it, will require the concentrated re sources of the nations; we must produce adequate food for the billions, or else billions will war against billions.

Introduces students to key principles, concepts, institutions in Australian Public Law, provides solid foundation for study of constitutional & administrative law. Explained through analysis of mechanisms of power & control, including discussions of functioning of institutions of government & contemporary issues. Authors at Uni of Adelaide.

Courts are key players in the dynamics of federal countries since their rulings have a direct impact on the ability of governments to centralize and decentralize power. Courts in Federal Countries examines the role high courts play in thirteen countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Nigeria, Spain, and the United States. The volume’s contributors analyse the centralizing or decentralizing forces at play following a court’s ruling on issues such as individual rights, economic affairs, social issues, and other matters. The thirteen substantive chapters have been written to facilitate comparability between the countries. Each chapter outlines a country’s federal system, explains the constitutional and institutional status of the court system, and discusses the high court’s jurisprudence in light of these features. Courts in Federal Countries offers insightful explanations of judicial behaviour in the world’s leading federations.

Courts and Federalism examines recent developments in the judicial review of federalism in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Through detailed surveys of these three countries, Gerald Baier clearly demonstrates that understanding judicial doctrine is key to understanding judicial power in a federation. Baier offers overwhelming evidence of doctrine's formative role in division-of-power disputes and its positive contribution to the operation of a federal system. Courts and Federalism urges political scientists to take courts and judicial reasoning more seriously in their accounts of federal government. Courts and Federalism will appeal to readers interested in the comparative study of law and government as well as the interaction of law and federalism in contemporary society.