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Constitutional Law, Federalism and the City as a Unique Socio-economic and Political Space

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European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020

Part of the book series: European Yearbook of Constitutional Law ((EYCL,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter builds upon the increased importance that cities have acquired in recent years. To this end, cities can be seen as the engines of development, innovation, cultural and social interaction, expressing the tensions between diversity and social cohesion. Being places of conflict and innovation, of solidarity and cohabitation of diverse people, cities are faced with unique challenges. Yet, they remain largely neglected as autonomous subjects in constitutional law and federalism theory. In proposing a definition of cities as unique socio-economic and political spaces, strategic for building new modes of governance and reconcile diversity and social cohesion, the chapter invites a more substantive reflection on the role and place of cities in constitutional law, and sketches a preliminary normative agenda for future constitutional reforms in this sense.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this regard, Ran Hirschl has recently authored the first all-encompassing work trying to address constitutional silence on cities including a comparative analysis of cities and their constitutional status. This work will finally bridge a gap in scholarship in addition to providing a theorisation of cities in constitutional law, see Hirschl 2020.

  2. 2.

    In the US and Canada, notable scholars who have worked on cities and federalism include Hoi Kong, Richard Schragger, Richard Briffault, Gerald Frug, Yishai Blank, among others.

  3. 3.

    This claim is generic and needs to be nuanced: some constitutions, especially those recently drafted or amended, feature local governments and municipalities, which obviously include cities. When speaking of cities as constitutional subjects, I intend cities as entities independent from (or opposed to) local governments and municipalities. I will revert to this point later in the chapter.

  4. 4.

    The concept of ‘space’ as used in this characterisation of cities partially builds on the idea of ‘legal spatiality’ as elaborated by Hirschl and Shachar and referring to ‘how considerations of space, place, and density impact the conceptualization and utilization of state power in a world of growing complexity and interdependence’: see Hirschl and Shachar 2019, p. 391. This concept of ‘space’ will not be further elaborated in this chapter.

  5. 5.

    This section extensively builds on Arban 2019, p. 232.

  6. 6.

    Martindale 1958, p. 37.

  7. 7.

    Blank 2007, p. 422.

  8. 8.

    Meehan et al. 2007, p. 4.

  9. 9.

    Martindale 1958, p. 45.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., p. 11.

  12. 12.

    Frug 1980, p. 1085.

  13. 13.

    Ibid.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., p. 1125.

  15. 15.

    Martindale 1958, p. 13.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 15.

  17. 17.

    Blank 2005–2006, p. 886.

  18. 18.

    Blank 2010, p. 516.

  19. 19.

    Blank 2005–2006, p. 878.

  20. 20.

    Blank 2006, p. 263.

  21. 21.

    Ibid. In this regard, it is worth noting that some metropolitan or large cities have started to being referred to as ‘global’ or ‘superstar’ cities to denote their national and international prominence. Sassen defined a ‘world’ or ‘global’ city as an urban agglomeration where ‘the location of transnational firms’ command functions and related activities play an important role in the global economic order’ (Sassen 2001, p. 5). Furthermore, she contends that ‘the more globalized the economy becomes, the higher the agglomeration of central functions in a relatively few sites, that is, the global cities’ (ibid.). In some economic circles, the expression ‘superstar’ city has been coined. The management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. has defined superstar cities according to certain criteria such as economic size and income, levels of global integration, capacity of innovation, financial importance, levels of digitalization, presence of container ports, or elevated share of national income given the share of population (https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/innovation-and-growth/superstars-the-dynamics-of-firms-sectors-and-cities-leading-the-global-economy, accessed 19 May 2020).

  22. 22.

    Riegner 2019, p. 40.

  23. 23.

    Arban 2019, p. 241.

  24. 24.

    Jacobs 1985, p. 132.

  25. 25.

    Martindale 1958, p. 33 and p. 37.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., p. 33.

  27. 27.

    Jacobs 1969, p. 6.

  28. 28.

    Jacobs 1985, p. 193.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., p. 32.

  30. 30.

    Jacobs 1969, p. 7.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., p. 39.

  32. 32.

    Schragger 2016, p. 18.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Ibid.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Jacobs 1985, p. 31.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Schragger 2016, p. 20.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., p. 21.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., p. 19.

  41. 41.

    Jacobs 1985, p. 162.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., p. 106 and p. 109.

  43. 43.

    Blank 2006, p. 264.

  44. 44.

    Martindale 1958, p. 30.

  45. 45.

    Cuison Villazor, among others, has written extensively on sanctuary cities in the US. The reader interested in this subject can resort to the following: Cuison Villazor 2008, p. 133; Cuison Villazor 2010, p. 573.

  46. 46.

    Arban 2019, p. 249.

  47. 47.

    Arban 2017, p. 242.

  48. 48.

    Blank 2006, p. 278.

  49. 49.

    Blank 2010, p. 554.

  50. 50.

    Scheurer and Haase 2018, p. 337.

  51. 51.

    Blank 2005–2006, p. 937.

  52. 52.

    Blank 2007, p. 415.

  53. 53.

    Ibid.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., p. 422.

  55. 55.

    Ibid., p. 423.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., p. 434.

  57. 57.

    Elazar 1987, p. 12.

  58. 58.

    This section extensively builds on Arban 2019, p. 235.

  59. 59.

    Althusius 1995, p. 42.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Ibid.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., p. 43.

  64. 64.

    Ibid., p. 50.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., p. 45.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Ibid.

  68. 68.

    Ibid.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., pp. 45–46.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., p. 49.

  71. 71.

    This section extensively builds on Arban 2019, p. 237.

  72. 72.

    A detailed account of the issue is beyond the scope of this chapter. Readers interested in studying this theme more thoroughly can look at Slack and Chattopadhyay 2009 on finance and governance of capital cities in federal systems.

  73. 73.

    For a discussion on the autonomous city of Buenos Aires, see Hernández 2020, p 50.

  74. 74.

    https://www.diputados.gob.mx/LeyesBiblio/pdf/1_090819.pdf (accessed on 21 May 2020).

  75. 75.

    For more information on sanctuary cities, see Cuison Villazor 2010, p. 573; Cuison Villazor 2008, p. 133.

  76. 76.

    A discussion of local governments in Brazil can be found in de Queiroz Ribeiro and Braule Pinto 2009, p. 76.

  77. 77.

    For a detailed analysis of local governments, their constitutional status and challenges in Germany, see Burgi 2009, p. 137.

  78. 78.

    For a more thorough discussion of local governments in India, see ex multis Mathew and Hooja 2009, p. 167; Idiculla 2020, p. 29.

  79. 79.

    For a discussion of metropolitan cities in Italy, see Longo and Mobilio 2016, p. 509.

  80. 80.

    Velasco Caballero 2009, p. 307.

  81. 81.

    For a detailed discussion of local governments in Switzerland, see ex multis Ladner 2009, p. 330.

  82. 82.

    For a discussion on local governments in South Africa see, ex multis, De Visser 2009, p. 268.

  83. 83.

    Auby 2013, p. 304.

  84. 84.

    Scheurer and Haase 2018, p. 340.

  85. 85.

    Schragger 2016, p. 220. In his work, the author refers to the US, but similar considerations can be made for many other jurisdictions

  86. 86.

    Schragger 2016, p. 221.

  87. 87.

    Ibid.

  88. 88.

    Ibid.

  89. 89.

    Auby 2013, p. 304.

  90. 90.

    The normative agenda presented here builds on Arban 2019, p. 245.

  91. 91.

    Jacobs 1964, p. 423.

  92. 92.

    For an account of subsidiarity as a constitutional principle, see Barber 2018, p. 187.

  93. 93.

    Blank 2006, p. 271.

  94. 94.

    Blank 2005–2006, p. 934.

  95. 95.

    Blank 2006, p. 271.

  96. 96.

    Blank 2005–2006, p. 918.

  97. 97.

    Blank 2006, p. 264.

  98. 98.

    Frug 1980, p. 1070.

  99. 99.

    Blank 2006, p. 271.

  100. 100.

    Ibid.

  101. 101.

    Tiebout 1956, p. 416.

  102. 102.

    Blank 2006, p. 270.

  103. 103.

    Ex multis see Palermo and Kössler 2017, pp. 164–165. For a discussion of representation at the centre in the ambit of substate nationalism, see ex multis Tierney 2006, p. 188.

  104. 104.

    Blank 2006, pp. 276–277.

  105. 105.

    Ibid., p. 276.

  106. 106.

    Ibid., p. 274.

  107. 107.

    Ibid., p. 275.

  108. 108.

    Ibid.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne Law School, Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, Melbourne, Australia

    Erika Arban

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Erika Arban

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  1. Department of Public Law and Governance, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Ernst Hirsch Ballin

  2. Department of Public Law and Governance, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Gerhard van der Schyff

  3. Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Maarten Stremler

  4. School of Law, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore

    Maartje De Visser

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Arban, E. (2021). Constitutional Law, Federalism and the City as a Unique Socio-economic and Political Space. In: Hirsch Ballin, E., van der Schyff, G., Stremler, M., De Visser, M. (eds) European Yearbook of Constitutional Law 2020. European Yearbook of Constitutional Law, vol 2. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-431-0_15

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