Objective
How should political power be divided within and among national peoples? Can the nineteenth-century theory of the sovereign and unitary State be applied to the social reality of the word of the twenty-first century? If not, what constitutional and philosophical theories can make sense of the empirical and normative world of our times? The rise of international organizations and, within Europe: the emergence of the European Union, have challenged the idea of the sovereign state ever since the end of the Second World War. And, in a seemingly paradoxical parallel, the myth of monolithic state power has equally come under attack from within states. Indeed: many modern states currently experience a political and constitutional devolution (Italy, Spain, United Kingdom).
Can we identify these developments with federal theory? Federalism is a philosophical and a constitutional problem. The federal principle has made a long ‘journey through time in quest of a meaning’ (SR Davis). Modern federalism emerged with the rise of the European State system. And in the nineteenth century, the federal idea became reduced to the idea of the Federal State. In the light of this reductionism, international centralisation and regional decentralisation continue to be – largely – misunderstood by mainstream European legal scholarship. The proposed project would fill this gap by providing a comparative constitutional analysis of the federal principle. It will analyse the historical evolution of the principle from the eighteenth to the twenty century in the first part, and concentrate on three contemporary experiences of “dividing” or “sharing” sovereignty in the second. The three case studies of (neo)federalism in the 21st century correspond to three legal sphere: the international sphere (United Nations, World Trade Organisation), the supranational sphere (European Union, NAFTA), and the regional sphere (Spain, United Kingdom).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- social sciences law international law
- social sciences other social sciences development studies development theories global development studies globalization
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy political philosophy
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2012-StG_20111124
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
DH1 3LE DURHAM
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.