The contributions in this book analyze the role of parliamentary assemblies in various federal systems. They deal with national parliaments, Second Chambers, regional parliaments, and the special role and functions of parliaments in Multi-Level Governance such as the EU.

Die Rechtsetzung ist bereits im nationalen Kontext schwer genug; in mehrstufigen Umfeldern wie den Bundesländern oder der EU ist sie jedoch noch komplizierter. Auf zentraler Ebene müssen Gesetze der Autonomie und Diversität der einzelnen Einheiten Rechnung tragen und trotzdem effektiv, kohärent, einfach und zugänglich sein. Auf der dezentralen Ebene müssen Gesetzgeber die Gesetze, die auf zentraler Ebene erarbeitet wurden, in einem festgelegten Zeitraum in ihrem eigenen Rechtsrahmen implementieren. Diese Herausforderungen werden in diesem Werk, das ausgewählte Beiträge der 2018 an der Universität Antwerpen stattgefundenen Konferenz der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Gesetzgebung enthält, diskutiert. Es befasst sich mit allen Mehrebenensystemen; ein besonderer Fokus liegt jedoch auf der EU, wo die Spannung zwischen Autonomie und Effizienz besonders offensichtlich ist. Teil I untersucht das Thema auf allgemeinster Ebene und umfasst alle Typen von Mehrebenensystemen. Teil II befasst sich mit der EU-Perspektive und Teil III mit der Perspektive der Mitgliedsstaaten. Die Autoren sind Experten in verschiedenen Disziplinen und Praktiker, was einen interdisziplinäre Herangehensweise sicherstellt.

This edited volume provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse and multi-faceted research on governance in multilevel systems. The book features a collection of cutting-edge trans-Atlantic contributions, covering topics such as federalism, decentralization as well as various forms and processes of regionalization and Europeanization. While the field of multilevel governance is comparatively young, research in the subject has also come of age as considerable theoretical, conceptual and empirical advances have been achieved since the first influential works were published in the early noughties. The present volume aims to gauge the state-of-the-art in the different research areas as it brings together a selection of original contributions that are united by a variety of configurations, dynamics and mechanisms related to governing in multilevel systems.

How and to what degree do federations produce uniform law within their system? This comparative empirical study addresses these questions comprehensively for the first time. Originally produced under the auspices of the International Academy of Comparative Law, this volume examines legal unification in twenty federations around the world. Each of the successive chapters presents the forces of unification through the lens of a particular federal system. A comparative overview chapter provides a detailed analysis of the overall results with compelling visual illustrations of legal unification along different dimensions (e.g. by area of law; by federation; by civil vs common law system). The overview chapter summarizes and analyzes the means and methods of legal unification and the degree of legal unification of each system, and explains the driving forces of legal unity and diversity in federations more generally. The volume presents surprising findings that should make scholars rethink their abandonment of the civil law vs. common law distinction in comparative law. ​ This book is a milestone in the study of federalism. It is a rare and welcome melding of comparative law and comparative politics using both original data and qualitative analysis. Wide-ranging, probing, and definitive, this book is an invaluable resource for students of law, politics, and multi-level governance. Gary Marks, Burton Craige Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Chair in Multilevel Governance, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

The book provides a comprehensive analysis of local government in federations. It fills the gap in current legal research and positions local government in federal studies through the lenses of comparative law, adopting a more nuanced approach to local government. The book considers the shortcomings between the black-letter constitution and its operational rules. Whether (and how) the regime of local government is implemented is more relevant than its formal-but-ineffective recognition. The comparative survey discloses the variety local institutions take in different federal contexts. Divided into three parts, the book comprises chapters investigating local government in systems that, to various degrees, have been examined and classified as federal. Scholars throughout the world have examined the federal-local connection in aggregative federations, (the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Austria), devolutionary ones (Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Italy, Spain, the UK, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the Russian Federation), as well as in federations beyond the West, where federalism-as-a-colonial-legacy has undergone a process of reinvention affecting the federal-local connection (South Africa, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia; St. Kitts and Nevis; United Arab Emirates; and Pakistan).

The theory and concept of multi-level governance (MLG) is a fairly recent one, emerging from the deepening integration of the European Union in the early 1990s and the development of free trade agreements around the world. MLG enlarges the traditional approaches, namely those of neo-institutionalism and multinational federalism, by offering a better understanding of the role of the state, regions and provinces. The book analyses the changes that have taken place as well as those that might take place in the future.