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Legal Harmonization Through Interfederal Cooperation: A Comparison of the Interfederal Harmonization of Law Through Uniform Law Conferences and Executive Intergovernmental Conferences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
Abstract
Modern federations are faced with the challenge of cross-state as well as cross-nation economic activities and with the ever-increasing mobility of society. This has not only promoted international law, but has also created the need for harmonized laws throughout federations within the competence areas of the states. Diverse laws within federal systems may increase transaction costs, cause delays, and lead to jurisdictional conflicts for nationwide or cross-state transactions. In order to preserve federalism, and therefore prevent an ever-advancing process of centralization, interfederal legal harmonization promoted by the states themselves is crucial. There are two distinct methods of legal harmonization of state laws: (1) harmonization by “Uniform Law Conferences,” which are in principle run by lawyers and thus independent, to a certain extent, from the influence of policy makers; and (2) harmonization by executive intergovernmental conferences. These two distinct models of interfederal legal harmonization will be analyzed and evaluated with regard to efficiency, compatibility with democratic principles, transparency, and accountability in a comparative legal study of the harmonization processes. This Article will scrutinize the federal systems of the United States and Canada, on the one hand, as well as those of Germany and Austria, on the other hand. The study will reveal that the efficiency of interfederal legal harmonization increases with the level of intergovernmental integration through the participation of government officials and their staff.
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References
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120 This is true for the Ministerial Conference of Agriculture (Agrarministerkonferenz, AMK) — specifically, Section 1.4 of the Rules of Procedure of the Ministerial Conference of Agriculture—and for the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior (Innenministerkonferenz, IMK). See Geschäftsordnung AMK, https://www.agrarministerkonferenz.de/documents/go-amk-stand-28092018_1539351169.pdf (last visited Nov. 20, 2018). See also the Website of the IMK, https://www.innenministerkonferenz.de/IMK/DE/aufgaben/aufgaben-node.html;jsessionid=441D336BEC08BAA6A096E04B74890820.1_cid349 (last visited Nov. 20, 2018). In other ministerial conferences such as the Conference of the Ministers for Consumer Protection (VSMK), for example, the federal minister has the right to vote but resolutions may also be passed in his absence. See Geschäftsordnung der VSMK, https://www.verbraucherschutzministerkonferenz.de/VSMK-Dokumente-Geschaeftsordnung.html (last visited Nov. 20, 2018).Google Scholar
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130 Id. (providing the German perspective). From the US-American perspective, see Greve, supra note 29, at 562.Google Scholar
131 Maxeiner, supra note 15, at 509.Google Scholar
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133 Cf. Leisner, Walter, Schwächung der Landesparlamente durch grundgesetzlichen Föderalismus, 1968 DÖV 389, 392 (1968); Schneider, supra note 111, at 118 et seq.; Martin Morlock, Informalisierung und Entparlamentarisierung politischer Entscheidungen als Gefährdungen der Verfassung?, 62 VVDStRL 39, 44 f. (2003); Kisker, supra note 128, at 123 et seq., 143.Google Scholar
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141 See Grundgesetz [GG] [Basic Law], art. 63(1), 67 (Ger.).Google Scholar
142 See Cheibub, José Antonio & Limongi, Fernando, Legislative-Executive Relations, in Comparative Constitutional Law 211, 215 (Tom Ginsburg & Rosalind Dixon eds., 2011).Google Scholar
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150 See Lehmbruch, supra note 148, at 29 et seq.; Hartmut Klatt, Interföderale Beziehungen im kooperativen Bundesstaat: Kooperation und Koordination auf der politischen Leitungsebene, 78 Verwaltungsarchiv 186, 194 (1987).Google Scholar
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157 An example of just how dysfunctional nations can become if there is no interfederal cooperation can be seen in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For more details on this topic, see Venice Commission, Preliminary Opinion on the Draft Amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, CDL(2006)027; Anika Klafki, Friedenssicherung durch Verfassungsrecht, 2015 DÖV 637, 640 et seq. Google Scholar