Conférence annulée
13h00 à 15h00, Salle Thierry Hentsch
A-3316, Pavillon Hubert-Aquin
Université du Québec à Montréal
Inscription : https://capcf.uqam.ca/activites/federalisme-demancipation-deux-trajectoires/
Multinational Federalism: Issues of Legitimacy, Identity and Regime Resilience
James Bickerton, St. Francis Xavier University
Securing and sustaining legitimacy, unity and stability in democratic multination states requires a perpetual balancing act, as tensions around national identities, rights and entitlements and power-sharing arrangements are endemic to this regime type, and never finally resolved. In the case of Canada, this has resulted in the introduction of new citizenship elements along with other changes and adjustments in order to reflect and consolidate shifts in the nature of the ‘federal bargain’ underlying the citizenship regime. This places a premium on dialogue and negotiation in search of workable compromises that will sometimes incorporate asymmetries and constitutional ambiguities as necessary features. This mode of governance is facilitated by a relatively open and inclusive national identity and a pragmatic political vision content to seek a ‘satisficing’ middle ground between national integration and diversity accommodation.
Emancipatory Federalism and Juridical Pluralism: The multinational European Context
Joxerramon Bengoetxea, University of the Basque Country
The paper will explore the normative discourse on secession and federalism from an analytical perspective, drawing inspiration from European integration theory, Comparative constitutionalism, sociologically informed Jurisprudence and comparative legal cultures. Case studies on claims to self-determination in post-indiref Scotland, the Catalan procès and the post-violence Basque Country will give important counterpoints to the populist positions in Brexit-UK, Spanish unitary demos discourse and the illiberal model of the Visograd group.
The thread of the argument starts from the premise that Federalism is a better alternative to Secession. Secession is a tragic and radical remedial choice. Voluntary union is a preferred option. But how can the Union be voluntary if the choice is not offered? A forced union cannot be preferable to an agreed exit. But what if the terms of secession are not agreed? The provisional conclusion is that federalism is a preferable option if it is emancipatory in a double sense: it is the result of a free choice between the constituent parts of the federation agreeing to respect and recognise difference and it ensures their free continuity and their exit rights (Voice and Exit). The emancipatory dimension is seen as the opposite of fractal federalism based on a national obsession with uniformity. Emancipatory federalism has to satisfy two conditions: it needs to be emancipatory for individuals safeguarding their liberty, and also for peoples (demos), enhancing their self-government. This double condition requires striking a balance between on the one hand, the principle of recognition of difference, in its collective and identity dimensions, essential to pluralistic understandings of law and politics, and, on the other, fundamental rights as a framework for the dignity and equality of all.
