The 'New Judicial Federalism' in the United States The Interplay of Federal and State Courts in Constitutional Adjudication

Abstract

This essay examines some aspects of the interplay of federal and state courts, and in particular the United States Supreme Court and state supreme courts, in the interpretation of federal and state constitutional guarantees of fundamental rights. It first examines the formal aspects of delineating the concurrent jurisdictions at federal and state levels, before proceeding to a substantive analysis of vertical judicial federalism. It ultimately turns to the causes and motivations of state supreme courts to interpret their constitutional guarantees differently from their federal counterpart(s) and discusses the benefits of a constructive intra-federal judicial dialogue for the advancement of rights in general.