The Once and Future Challenges of American Federalism: The Tug of War Within
This essay is drawn from a lecture for the “Ways of Federalism” conference (University of the Basque Country, October 19, 2011) and a forthcoming book, Federalism and the Tug of War Within (Oxford, 2012), which explores how constitutional interpreters struggle to reconcile the core tensions within American federalism. The essay reviews the current challenges of the American federal system through the theoretical lens developed in the book, focusing on the role of state-federal bargaining within the U.S. federal system.
Enhancing Government: Federalism for the 21st Century
*** [Contents page follows on page vii] *** *** CONTENTS [page vii] *** Contents Acknowledgments 000 Introduction 000 Chapter 1 The Paradox of Post-1937 Federalism: How Did We Get Here and Where Are We Going? 000 Chapter 2 The Formalism of the Federalism Decisions and Its Failure 000 Chapter 3 The Values of Federalism 000 Chapter 4 Conceiving Federalism as Empowerment, Not Limits 000 Chapter 5 Federalism as Empowerment: Redefining the Role of the Federal Courts 000 Chapter 6 Empowering States: A Different Approach to Preemption 000 Conclusion 000 Notes 000 Index 000
State and Local Climate Change Initiatives: What is Motivating State and Local Governments to Address a Global Problem and What Does this Say About Federalism and Environmental Law?
The current status of climate change policy represents something of a federalism role reversal in environmental law. Rather than the federal government playing the dominant role of establishing standards and ground rules for regulatory programs, it is the state governments that are actively pursuing programs to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and sequester carbon while the federal government has adopted a nonregulatory, and, many would argue, a do-very-little approach. In this essay, Kirsten Engel probes why states are addressing a global problem such as climate change and what will be the long-term significance of the states' activities, both in terms of the nation's response to climate change and for the structure of federalism in environmental law. She concludes that there are numerous motivations for state and local action, illustrating the multidimensional nature of climate policy. She contends that the long-term significance of state and local action may be in its capacity to trigger federal greenhouse gas regulation or to encourage international diplomatic efforts to address climate change.