Cities in Federal Constitutional Theory

by Arban, Erika

• ISBN13: 9780192843272
• ISBN10: 0192843273
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-11-11
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The city as an independent subject of theorisation and investigation is an underexamined area of constitutional law. Although in recent years scholars have started to explore the legal dimension and place of urban areas, the study of cities as constitutional subjects remains very new, with a solid theoretical foundation yet to be established.

Against this backdrop of general under-theorisation of cities in constitutional law and federalism, Cities in Federal Constitutional Theory seeks to offer a fresh theoretical account of cities as federalism subjects, exploring the increased importance they have acquired from political, economic, socio-cultural, and demographic perspectives.

This volume directly addresses the relationship between cities, federalism, and localism (or subsidiarity), and responds to concerns about the scarcity of innovative theoretical discussion on the topic, while at the same time redefining accepted concepts like subsidiarity. Bringing together theoretical reflections on the city from established scholars, this edited collection significantly enriches the field of federal constitutional theory.

Author Biography

Erika Arban, Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Erika Arban is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School. She is the co-convenor of the research group "New Frontiers of Federalism" of the International Association of Constitutional Law (IACL).

Table of Contents

Conceptual Framework
1. An Intellectual History of Federalism: The City and the 'Unit' Question, Erika Arban
2. Federalism and Local Governments, Cheryl Saunders and Erika Arban
3. Subsidiarity and the City: the Case for Mutual Strengthening, Maria Cahill and Gary O'Sullivan
4. Cities in Federal Systems: Comparative Perspectives, Ran Hirschl
Cities as Neglected Constitutional Units of Analysis in Federal Theory
5. The New Pre-emption: Placing Cities in American Federalism, Richard Briffault
6. Constitutional Theory, Federalism, and Cities, Hoi Kong
7. Cities, Federalism, and Criminal Law Reform, William Partlett
8. Victims and Villains: Cities and the Environment on the Constitutional Stage, Rebecca Nelson
9. Privacy and the City: Toward Progressive Urban Cosmopolitanism, Bilyana Petkova
10. Conclusion: the City in the Future of Federalism, Richard Schragger