Federal Issues Research Articles

BRAZILIAN MUNICIPALITIES

This article aims to address the issue of federalism and its consequences in conceptual terms allowing some historical setbacks that contributed to the construction of the current model in the country. The focus is on the municipality as a federated entity, the result of the promulgation of the 1988 Constitution and its consequences emphasizing the municipality as a federated entity and its current constitutional incumbers. In this reflection I intend to point and make reflections on weaknesses, challenges and achievements derived from the performance of this federative entity, with emphasis on the educational sector, when I present elements gathered from a survey of studies with the purpose of identifying political-institutional, economic and cultural factors that imply its performance.

QUESTÃO FEDERAL INFRACONSTITUCIONAL NO RECURSO ESPECIAL E SUAS NUANCES

This article aims to present an analysis of the relevance of the federal infraconstitutional issue in the Special Appeal, introduced by Constitutional Amendment 125/2022. In this sense, the Special Appeal, the appropriateness of the Special Appeal, the concept of relevance of the Special Appeal, the requirement to apply the federal question were analyzed. Furthermore, a study was carried out on the motivation for the reform, the criticisms directed towards it, as well as regarding the beginning of the federal issue's validity and when it will be regulated in ordinary legislation and in the RISTJ and, finally, the conclusions reached were due to the importance the new figure constitutionally provided for in the filter for appeals to the STJ, as well as the lack of regulation on the subject.

Federal Issues in Pakistan: Challenges and Prospects (2013-2023)

Pakistan is a federal republic with a complex system of government. The federal government shares power with the provincial governments, but the distribution of power between the two levels of government has been a contentious issue since the country's independence. This paper examines the major federal issues in Pakistan from 2013 to 2023, including the impact of political instability and polarization, economic challenges and opportunities, and the rise of extremism and intolerance of diversity and dissent. This article aims to explore and analyze these issues from a multidisciplinary perspective, using the secondary sources of data. The article argues that Pakistan’s federal system has been under strain due to various internal and external factors, such as corruption, nepotism, civil-military relations, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, regional rivalries, and global pressures. The article suggests some possible solutions and recommendations for improving the federal governance and performance of Pakistan, such as constitutional reforms, fiscal decentralization, institutional strengthening, social inclusion, and dialogue. The article concludes that Pakistan’s federal system has the potential to overcome its challenges and achieve its prospects, if there is a genuine commitment and cooperation among all stakeholders.

A new acquisition model for the next disaster: Overcoming disaster federalism issues through effective utilization of the Strategic National Stockpile

AbstractUsing primary data collected from interviews with federal and state government officials and secondary data related to PPE distribution and state healthcare statistics, we discovered evidence that the use of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to distribute personal protective equipment to state and local agencies in need during the height of COVID‐19 was indeed poorly designed to cope with the COVID‐19 emergency, leaving many states with shortages of badly needed medical supplies. As a result, many states struggled to organize an uncoordinated procurement response—which we suggest is due to federalism issues. To overcome federalism challenges and increase future disaster preparedness, we recommend four necessary reforms to the SNS that include (1) the incorporation of uncompensated industry experts into SNS administration, (2) the provision of an emergency production board for times of crisis, (3) elevated political leadership for the SNS, (4) improvement of federal‐state supply chain governance.

Teaching Slavery in Commercial Law

Public status shapes private ordering. Personhood status, conferred or acknowledged by the state, determines whether one is a party to or the object of a contract. For much of our nation’s history, the law deemed all persons of African descent to have a limited status, if given personhood at all. The property and partial personhood status of African-Americans, combined with standards developed to facilitate the growth of the international commodities market for products including cotton, contributed to the current beliefs of business investors and even how communities of color are still governed and supported. The impact of that shift in status persists today. The commodities markets and the nations that rose and prospered would not be possible without the slave trade, and that trade would not be possible without the legal, business, and social norms in place to facilitate private ordering and growth while reinforcing the subjugation of African-Americans. Yet, many business and commercial law professors devote class time to teaching foundational and historical material, without any consideration of the impact of slavery. To avoid slavery in business and commercial law courses is to ignore an institution that plays a pivotal role in much of what we do today. Slavery is not a frolic, it is foundational. Many American universities played a role in the slave trade—either by receiving funds from the enterprise or receiving the enslaved as donations and using their labor or disposing of them for the financial advancement of the institution. In my Core Commercial Concepts course, a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) survey class covering Articles 2, 3, 4, and 9, I devote time and space to discussions of race and the law by making the connection between the history of commercial concepts, slavery, and the role of the cotton industry in the shaping of international commercial law norms. In my simulation, described in this Essay, I teach the story of Washington and Lee University’s sale of individuals for the purpose of ensuring the institution’s financial survival, then extrapolate from the facts to review the high points of commercial law. I incorporate materials on the legacy of slavery at my own institution to provide students with a scenario based on the acquisition of real property and construction of buildings they engage with on campus. In this Essay I explain the methods I use to explore these concepts. Working in a framework that focuses on classification and status, my students consider issues of federalism and the impact of statutory definitions on private ordering, while discussing how these definitions shape the relationship of African-Americans to commerce.

Cameroon: Problems of National Development

Cameroon: Problems of National Development

ASYMMETRICAL FEDERALISM AND ANTI-FEDERAL SENTIMENT IN MALAYSIA: THE SABAH EXPERIENCE

Federalism is a system of fair and orderly power sharing between the state and federal governments. However, in the case of the Federation of Malaysia, this division is unbalanced and asymmetrical, owing to the fact that Sabah and Sarawak have been given more privileges than other states in Malaya as a condition to join the Federation of Malaysia during its formation on 16 September 1963. These terms were proposed by the Intergovernmental Committee and included in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), which was signed on July 9, 1963, in London by the United Kingdom, the Federation of Malaya (Malaya), North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore. Despite the fact that MA63 and the 20-point Agreement grant Sabah unique privileges, the state has long struggled with federalism issues, giving rise to anti-federal sentiments. Using the concept of asymmetrical federalism as a tool of analysis, this study examines the issues of asymmetrical federalism responsible for the anti-federal sentiment in Sabah. Interviews were used to collect primary data, while sources including books, journals, newspapers and online news were mined for secondary data in this qualitative study. Oil royalties, unequal development between Sabah and the Peninsula, immigration and security threats, Sabah's regional status within Malaysia and Borneonisation were found to be the five main issues that prompted Sabahans to be dissatisfied with the implementation of asymmetrical federalism. The failure of the Sabah and federal governments to address these issues has contributed to the birth of anti-federal sentiment in Sabah.

The Search for a Symphony: A Discourse on the Issue of Derivation, Revenue Allocation, and Fiscal Federalism in Nigeria

This paper joins the debate on the fiscal policy of the Nigerian government in terms of the revenue allocation formula of the federating units which has been a recurring theme in the country’s political existence. A review of revenue allocation formulas shows that the tools used as a measure to allocate and distribute revenue had been more of political gerrymandering, with each regime choosing which formula suits them without minding how the federating units react (Adedokun, 2002). An introspective analysis of the various Decrees enacted by the military regimes and the Acts between 1979 and 1983 shows that the southern part of the federation had been denied the right in maximizing the full potential of the resources in their territory. With all these, it portends that revenue allocation and distribution from 1968 to 1989 were not in line with true fiscal federalism as should be practiced. It is therefore recommended that the government and stakeholders at all levels should parley and do the needful by reviewing the current sharing formula with a view to correct the anomaly that has bedeviled revenue allocation and distribution over the years. Simply put, there should be decentralization in the generation, distribution, and allocation of revenue where states should manage their resources as it will reflect true fiscal federalism as practiced in civilized clime. The constitution remains silent on the cardinal issue of derivation and that is why today the question of who gets what, when, and how in terms of revenue allocation and sharing remains politicized and a recurrent issue in Nigeria till today.

Carbon tax: The issues of carbon unit exchange trading arrangement

Subject. This article examines the important for the Russian Federation issues of carbon-dioxide absorption certificate creation, certification, and trading arising from the current climate agenda defined by the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Objectives. The article aims to investigate methodological and organizational issues that hinder the exchange carbon unit trading, especially when implementing forest environmental projects aimed to enhance the absorbing capacity of Russian forests. The article also aims to develop original proposals to classify the carbon tax in the context of the implementation of carbon regulation in the Russian Federation. Methods. For the study, we used analysis, comparison, systematization, and generalization of relevant scientific literature. Results. The article classifies the existing approaches to the assessment of carbon units for their use in exchange emission trading, and it offers recommendations for making appropriate forest legislation amendments. Conclusions and Relevance. The implementation of plans for adaptation to climate change will require the development of a range of activities, including exchange trading of carbon units. The results of the study are aimed at implementing forest environmental projects with minimal damage to the Russian industry, which falls under external carbon regulation, and will improve the economic security of the State in the context of the transition to de-carbonization of the economy. The proposed approaches can be used in summarizing the results of an experiment to establish special regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and absorption in the Sakhalin Oblast in terms of accounting for carbon units in exchange trading and developing industry-wide recommendations on this issue.

The Development of Federalism as a Concept and State-Legal Formation in the Light of an Integrative Approach

In the context of modern globalization, the task of clarifying the role of the federalism idea as a conceptual level of cognition in the context of the formation of new forms of state-legal education becomes urgent. The most important prerequisite here is a theoretical and methodological solution to the problem of federalism as a concept involving the consideration of its historical understanding and the solution of issues of federalism as a state-legal formation (practice) inextricably linked with the genesis of the federalism concept. Hence, the main purpose of the study is to investigate the stages of the federalism concept formation and discloses the historical features of its practical implementation. Two opposing principles of federalism (integrative and disintegrative) are defined and the promising outlook of its research from the perspective of an integrative approach is shown.

Taxation and mobility in dualistic models– (and) Some neglected issues of fiscal federalism

Abstract. In this paper we present and confront the expected outcome of a raise in earnings taxes on the regional or sectoral allocation of labor force and employment. The basic frameworks are the benchmark dualistic scenarios. A single-input analysis of an homogeneous product economy is provided once extensions were designed to highlight the role of mobility barriers and how they interact with local wage-setting rules to determine regional allocation rather than trade issues or factor substitution. We report the main effects on equilibrium local after-tax wages, supply, employment and aggregate welfare surplus of a unilateral as well as a simultaneous unit tax increase of the (a) basic two-sector model in six different scenarios: free market; partial (one-sector) coverage with perfect intersector mobility; partial (one-sector) coverage with imperfect mobility (Harris-Todaro); multiple (two-sector) coverage with imperfect mobility (Bhagwati-Hamada); partial (one-sector) coverage with affiliation restrictions in the covered sector; partial (one-sector) coverage with limited employment generation ability in the traditional uncovered sector. Needless to say, the results would apply to any other production factor, one or other scenario being more appropriate for inference of the consequences of differential taxation systems. Keywords. Taxation and migration, Taxation and mobility, Taxation and segmented labor markets, Regional labor markets, Fiscal federalism. JEL. O15, O18, O24, R13, R23, R59, H29, H71, H73, J42, J61, J62, J68, F22, F42.

Primed for Preemption: Eminent Domain of Railroad Property under the ICCTA

The road to an inconsistent, fact-intensive, national framework for railroad regulation is paved with good intentions—or at least such has been the case in application of the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (“ICCTA”) to condemnations of railroad property by state and local actors. Despite the best intentions of Congress, this particular intersection of transportation law, property law, and issues of federalism has often left the overlapping interests of rail carriers and the nation’s economy in conflict with local actors. This article provides a brief overview of the ICCTA, examines the prevailing regulatory analysis in this purportedly deregulated environment, and concludes with a discussion of a simple solution offered by one federal court to better protect the backbone of interstate commerce.

Sustainable Investing: A New Paradigm (Scene 2)

Gil is pulling on a baseball cap, trying to cover up the fact that he has not showered today. He signs into the Zoom call with Sydney and Eli for their Friday afternoon virtual social hour and to continue last week's discussion about sustainable investing. As he joins, Sydney is talking to Eli. Sydney: . . . so, yeah, even with shot number two done, I will still wear a mask. Oh, here's Gil (pauses, with a smirk)—nice hat, Gil. Gil: (ignoring the wisecrack) Wait—you already got both shots? How do you feel? Sydney: Okay, I guess. I'm just glad to be on a path to, hopefully, putting this behind me. (Changing the subject) Did you guys learn anything about ESG? Eli: I did. So, I was supposed to learn about E, the environmental aspects of ESG. Here—I'll share my screen. Eli fiddles with his computer and after a couple of tries, succeeds in sharing a slide presentation. Eli: (flashing a few slides) As we know, ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. It's a new focus of investors who believe a good ESG track record indicates a better investment. Gil: (inquisitively) Sure, but what does the environment have to do with sustainable investing and how does that relate to our work at the utility? Eli: (flipping to the next slide) Great lead-in, Gil. The E element includes things like water and climate change. For many investments, water availability, drought, and climate change are risk factors. In our jobs we address these risks, like our watershed protection program or drought response plans. Those plans help make us less risky to investors. Sydney: So, are we good on E? Eli: (looking upward with a head tilt) I think we're okay. But we can probably do more—especially communication and measurement to show how our work maintains continuity of operations. Gil: That makes sense. If we are environmentally prepared and resilient, lenders will have greater confidence in us, and we will be less of an investment risk. Eli: (no longer sharing his screen) You got it—it helps, of course, that we are already doing many of the right things for our community. And that's where Sydney takes over—the social part, right? Sydney: That's right. Like E, there's a lot to understanding the social, or S part, of ESG. Think of it this way. We provide water to our customers and that allows everything in our society to happen—public health, fire protection, economic prosperity, education, recreation, and more. (Sydney pauses to let that point sink in, then she continues). And as we do that, we need to respond to the demographic and social realities of our community. Gil: (with Eli looking equally perplexed) What are you talking about—we just provide the water? Sydney: Actually, we do so much more. Our service area has an aging and ethnically diverse population—other communities don't. Also, some of our customers have lead service lines and now there's PFAS, too. We don't just provide water, we provide it to our community, which has its own unique social issues—including COVID-19. Eli: I see. So we need to do the work of providing water and clearly addressing the social elements of our community—just like we're addressing all the environmental elements. Sydney: Yup. So how does governance fit into this? Gil: (adjusting his cap) That is easy, and hard. The easy part is that governance is a process for decision-making, and our board and leadership team are good at that. It's hard because, for those of us in the public sector, there are governance requirements at the local, state, and federal levels. Eli: (bewildered) That's a lot of government. Gil: It is. The way I see it, we need to understand the state and federal issues and take responsible action locally. Also—and here's the connection—we need to understand how our utility governance helps address our social and environmental challenges. Sydney: (decisively) I knew it! E, S, and G are all tied together. So, what now? Eli: (exhaling) Well, I anticipated that question. I already spoke to our general manager and she'd like us to come and talk to the leadership team about ESG at their next meeting. Gil: Really? That's great! Sydney: It sure is, and Gil (Sydney grins), nix the cap for that meeting. Scene 2 fades to black as Gil, Eli, and Sydney sign off. To be continued in next month's Last Drop.

Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in the European Union

The economic crises of the 21st century have challenged the unity of the European Union. The initially strong centripetal forces started to be weakened by new, unexpected centrifugal forces. What does the future hold for the European Union, and how can it face the unforeseen challenges? Currently the most important divisive, centrifugal forces within the EU include the management of mass migration, the debates surrounding the EU budget, the lack of a common foreign policy and the issue of sovereignty versus federalism. The essay addresses these topics one by one, because a strong, influential and unified Europe cannot exist without a solution to the migration crisis which is accepted by all Member States, a more coordinated fiscal and foreign policy and an explicit, uniformly accepted interpretation of the sovereignty of nation states. These areas are likely to remain divisive, centrifugal forces hampering the progress of European integration for years to come, but they should be discussed to identify the most important things to do.

Правовое регулирование авиационного бизнеса в России: поиск баланса между обеспечением транспортной безопасности и эффективностью авиаперевозок

The article discusses the trends in the development of legislation regulating the aviation business in the Russian Federation, in particular, theoretical and practical issues related to the efficiency and safety of air transportation, as well as the search for a balance between them. The article reveals the history of forming the concepts «transport security» and «aviation security» in the Soviet and modern Russian legislation. In order to clarify the Russian state authorities` powers distribution in the field of transport security and their consolidation in the current legislation, the authors investigate the features of the powers of these bodies in the historical retrospect from the beginning of the XIX century. The authors critically analyze the implementation of the certain provisions of the Government of the Russian Federation «On the approval of requirements for ensuring transport security, taking into account the safety levels for air transport vehicles», the implementation of which causes significant problems for air transport operators. It is established that the implementation of these provisions is difficult: it will significantly aggravate the existing economic situation of aircraft operators, and in combination with the general negative trends in the world can lead to a possible mass bankruptcy of domestic small and medium-sized airlines. The authors suggest ways to solve the identified problems. In particular, a possible solution in finding a balance between transport safety and the cost-effectiveness of air transportation may be a «transition period», during which the expansion of the requirements under study will affect only new aircraft.

連邦制問題を目覚めさせた「ヒョウ」 : 西部ナイジェリアで設立された自警団アモテクン考

連邦制問題を目覚めさせた「ヒョウ」 : 西部ナイジェリアで設立された自警団アモテクン考

Los avatares de una reforma ante un federalismo en cuestión. Gobernar y legislar sobre los Territorios Nacionales en la descomposición regeneracionista del orden conservador (1910-1916)

La reforma electoral promovida por Roque Sáenz Peña ha representado el principal objeto de interés de la historiografía sobre el periodo entre 1910 y 1916. Menor atención se ha dado a otras cuestiones que los contemporáneos sin embargo consideraban entre los problemas de mayor importancia. Es el caso de los que se identificaban en torno al régimen federal, objeto de numerosas controversias políticas e intelectuales. Aquí se busca contribuir al tema a partir de una de las aristas específicas del federalismo argentino como fue de la condición institucional de los Territorios Nacionales y su eventual admisión como nuevas provincias.

Entrepreneurial Regulatory Legal Strategy: The Case of Cannabis

This article develops the concepts of regulatory legal strategy, a resource‐based view of government agencies, and regulatory entrepreneurship. These ideas are explored through a case study of the limited (if any) access that legal cannabis‐related businesses have to the banking system due to the clash between federal law and laws in those states that have legalized some uses of cannabis. This article argues that regulators’ entrepreneurial regulatory legal strategies can have a material impact on regulated entities and give them a competitive advantage. To demonstrate, this article claims that regulators’ adoption of permissive regulatory legal strategies has facilitated access of some cannabis‐related businesses to the banking system. Conversely, if regulators adopted obstructive regulatory strategies, this would act as a constraint on such access in the future, even if Congress resolves the federalism issue largely responsible for the current limitations these businesses face.

Criminal Dissent: Prosecutions under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. By Wendell Bird (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2020) 560 pp. $55.00

<i>Criminal Dissent: Prosecutions under the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798</i>. By Wendell Bird (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2020) 560 pp. $55.00

The Constitutional Development of the Nineteenth Amendment in the Decade Following Ratification

This essay is based on my remarks at the Center for Constitutional Law’s symposium on the Centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment. It offers a brief summary of the thesis of my forthcoming book from Oxford University Press. In Constitutional Orphan: Gender Equality and the Nineteenth Amendment (forthcoming 2020), I argue that the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 represented a significant moment in American history, one which held the promise of change in the political, civil and social status of women in our republic. However, what emerged from a decade of contestation was a thin conception of the Nineteenth’s constitutional meaning, as a mere nondiscrimination in voting rule. The story of the Nineteenth presents a puzzle as to why this thin conception of the amendment prevailed over a thicker conception of the amendment, as a broader norm around women’s equal citizenship and gender equality. Drawing on original historical sources, legal scholarship and case analysis, the book illuminates a piece of that puzzle. The book offers an account of how that thin conception emerged and the role played by national suffrage organizations, as institutional actors, in that story. While Congress and the courts are significant sites of constitutional interpretation and enforcement, social movements within civil society play influential roles as well. Through their efforts to enfranchise American women, suffragists assumed that role. Yet, the suffragists made strategic choices post-ratification that took them away from the Nineteenth as a focus of energy and resources. That pivot meant that there was less consistent, unified pressure on state courts as they parsed the corollary constitutional questions around the extent of the Nineteenth’s impact on state law regulating poll taxes, jury service and holding public office. A close reading of the history around these cases illustrates how the Nineteenth implicated issues of federalism, the scope of woman’s citizenship and the constitutional meaning of equality, in ways shaped by race, gender and class. There was a similar absence of unified pressure on Congress to enact enforcement legislation pursuant to section two of the Nineteenth, as well as a deep split in the former suffrage movement over the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. Exploring this history helps us understand the puzzle of why the Nineteenth did not develop a thicker, more robust constitutional meaning in the decade following its ratification. Given the current uncertainty about the status of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, revisiting the jurisprudential potential of the Nineteenth Amendment can shed light on how we may better secure women’s constitutional equality today.