About the Centre

The focus of the Centre’s activities is not only the established federations, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria but also the European Union (EU) as an emergent federal union together with those parts of the world where federal arrangements have the practical possibility to promote peace, justice and stability.

The Centre is therefore just as keen to attract those interested in India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia and Ethiopia as it is to receive expressions of interest in South Africa, Spain, Cyprus, Sri Lanka and Iraq. Consequently the scope of federal studies is broad and includes those who are interested in comparative federalism, federalism as political theory and philosophy, federalism as conflict management and federalism as constitutional democracy.

Those who work in the Centre believe that contemporary trends in world affairs suggest that a revival of interest in federal ideas is, in many ways, already evident. It is clearly one significant response to the daunting challenge of difference and diversity that we find expressed in many countries, such as in Iraq, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Eritrea and South Africa. It is also amply demonstrated in the recent constitutional and political developments that have served to strengthen the European Union (EU) during the last decade and it is evident, too, in Mercosur in South America as well as in recent developments that have promoted closer union in Central America.

The work of the Centre is therefore consonant with world trends that indicate a renaissance of federal ideas, proposals and practices appropriate to the new age of justice as the recognition of difference, diversity and human rights.