Prof. Dr. Olivier Beaud (Universität Paris II, Institut Universitaire de France) The federal compact as a way of breaking the link between Constitution and State
Einführung von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ingolf Pernice (HU Berlin)
Zusammenarbeit mit: grakov, DFG Graduiertenkolleg "Verfassung jenseits des Staates"
Programme
With other scholars; I tried in my Book Théorie de la Fédération (Paris, PUF, 2007, and 2009) to reduce the meaning and scope of this distinction between Federal State and Confederacy. Consequently, I dismiss – implicit or explicitly – the correlative distinction set up about the legal foundation of a Federation between the federal constitution, which is supposed to be the legal basis of a Federal State, and the treaty , which is supposed to be the legal basis of a Confederacy. It is then time to tackle this problem of the founding act of a Federation as a specific constitutional act. Here it will be proposed to discuss the concept of federal compact (pacte fédératif, in French, Bundessvertrag, in german) as the most adequate concept for understanding the legal basis of a Federation.
Documents :
1/ The Articles of Confederation of the USA (1777) 2/ the federal compact of the Swiss confederation (1815)
