The Principle of Equality in Diverse States: Reconciling Autonomy with Equal Rights and Opportunities

Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-90-04-39460-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 13, 438 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 890 g

Reihe: Studies in Territorial and Cultural Diversity Governance

Implementing the principle of equality is particularly challenging in federal or decentralised states. Autonomy rights guaranteed to regions or to minorities allow for diversity but question the equality of citizens. While diversity is crucial for legitimate governance in heterogeneous states, it jeopardises equal rights and opportunities. In states based on power-sharing the conceptualisation and implementation of equality therefore raises fundamental questions. How much equality between regional regimes or the rights and freedoms of individuals does the unity of a state require? And how much inequality must be tolerated? This book examines different approaches by which states characterised by federal or decentralised arrangements reconcile equality and autonomy. In case studies from five continents, leading experts analyse the challenges of ensuring institutional, social and economic equality whilst respecting the competences of regions and the rights of groups.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Belser, Eva Maria

Bächler, Thea

Egli, Sandra

Zünd, Lawrence

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Internationales Recht und Europarecht Internationales Recht Internationale Menschen- und Minderheitenrechte, Kinderrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte

Über Autor(innen)

Eva Maria Belser holds a Chair for Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Fribourg and a UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Democracy. She is Co-Director of the Institute of Federalism and a Board Member of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights. She teaches and publishes in the field of Swiss and comparative constitutional law, federalism, decentralisation and globalisation, human and minority rights and democracy as well as constitution making and conflict resolution. She regularly accepts mandates to serve as a Swiss expert in international consultancy projects. Her recent consultancy activities were related to Iraq, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Syria. She was awarded the Swiss federalism prize in 2019.

Thea Bächler is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg. In her research, she focuses on constitutional social rights and social welfare systems in federal contexts.

Sandra Egli works for the Chair for Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Fribourg. Her research interests are fundamental rights and interdisciplinary questions in law. She holds a Master in Law from the University of Bern and a Master in Political Science from the University of Zurich.

Lawrence Zünd holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Lausanne. He has studied in China and Lebanon, where he developed a deep understanding of local and regional issues. Proponent of interdisciplinarity, he focuses on the role of perceptions and emotions in socio-political turning points.