The International Actions of Federal Entities: a Comparative Enquiry

Federal states and the EU as ‘a federation of states’ face the problem of forging a coherent foreign policy for an internally differentiated polity. Traditionally, it was believed that federations should act at the international level as one unified actor. Recently federated entities are, however, granted an increasingly important role in external relations. The aim of the project is to uncover to which extent different federal systems have adapted their constitutional and institutional structures to this recent development or whether the traditional credo of ‘internal diversity, external unity’ still stands. This question will be addressed by conducting a comparative legal enquiry, in which the place that foreign policy occupies within different federal states and the EU as a federal actor will be examined. The federal states chosen as main comparators are Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, and Canada because they cover the whole spectrum of federal approaches to foreign policy: on the one hand closed federal systems, where the external unity is still of great importance and open federal systems on the other hand, where the competences of the federated entities is visible at the international level. It is hoped that fruitful lessons for the development of the external relations of the EU and the international activities of federated entities can be learned.