Based on a multidisciplinary analysis, the book presents a contemporary view of the main challenges facing regional development and regional policy in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly considering to what extent domestic and non-domestic legacies have affected the regionalization process in this area. The volume mainly focuses on the institutional arrangements at regional level, analyzing the motives, procedures and outcomes of either political or administrative reforms introduced in the latest years. The focus are the former communist countries, both members of the EU and not (case...

The book describes and analyses how environmental issues are regulated in several federal, regional and unitary systems and in the European Union. The comparative analysis reveals common trends towards a multi-layered environmental governance, cross-cutting traditional distinctions among different state models.In the second part, the case study of the management and protection of water resources is selected and analysed in the same legal systems. Disaggregating environmental protection into more specific competence fields allows to test trends and challenges.The book casts light on the...

Accounting for participation, separation of powers and democratic accountability, federalism gains momentum in times when traditional democratic legitimacy of institutional decision-making is challenged. Its ability to include multiple interests makes federalism a means to ensure good governance. Based on a multidisciplinary analysis, the book tackles the question of whether federalism as a pragmatic governance tool provides answers to current challenges and what those answers are. Thirty-three leading experts critically examine to what extent federalism serves this purpose in compound...

Migration is an increasingly important reality for sub-national autonomous territories characterized by large historical communities or minorities. The diverse claims of these groups, on the one hand, and of new communities arising from migration, on the other, bring complexity to the management of migration issue in the territories. Migration and Autonomous Territories, edited by Roberta Medda-Windischer and Andrea Carla, draws on the fields of migration and minority studies, to analyze the challenges associated with the need to reconcile diversity and unity in autonomous territories....

Prompted by the de facto secession of Crimea in early 2014, Law, Territory and Conflict Resolution explores the role of law in territorial disputes, and therefore sheds light on the legal 'realities' in territorial conflicts. Seventeen scholars with backgrounds in comparative constitutional law and international law critically reflect on the well-established assumption that law is 'part of the solution' in territorial conflicts and ask whether the law cannot equally be 'part of the problem'. The volume examines theory, practice, legislation and jurisprudence from various case studies,...

The volume "Pro-independence Movements and Immigration: Discourse, Policy and Practice," edited by Roberta Medda-Windischer and Patricia Popelier, explores the ways in which pro-independence movements and the governments of sub-state nations view and interact with new immigrants. It also examines the attitudes of new minorities toward pro-independence movements. Through case studies from the Basque Country, Flanders, Catalonia, Quebec, Scotland and South Tyrol, the authors examine the interrelationship between pro-independence movements and new minorities from a new perspective, oriented...

Concurrency of powers the exercise of jurisdiction by federal governments and constituent units in the same policy areas is a key, if not the central, mode of governance in most federal systems today. Moreover, the experience has been that federal governments dominate the concurrent space giving rise to contestation. This volume, Concurrent Powers in Federal Systems: Meaning, Making and Managing, edited by Professor Nico Steytler, is the first to examine from a comparative perspective this crucial issue confronting both established and emerging federations. Case studies of 16 countries...