Abstract
The group work is designed both to discuss in which ways federalism and federal theory support power-sharing in environmental matters and to understand how the multilevel governance of the environment works in the practice of selected constitutional systems in selected sectors. Constitutional arrangements regarding the division of legislative powers between the federal/central state and its subnational entities may change over time. In this respect, scholars discuss the rationale for splitting environmental powers between the centre and the periphery. The workshop will explore those issues with a view to understanding the relevance of abstract criteria in the division of environmental powers. To this end, in the first part of the workshop, the instructor will present a contribution by Mostert (2015) that discusses the different principles for allocating responsibilities in environmental matters among different levels of government. In the second part, discussion will focus on the practice of federal States (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Russia, and United States) to understand how the multilevel governance of the environment works in practice. To this end, participants will present the contributions assigned to them by the instructor. The eight participants are divided into four groups made of two persons each (see below). The first member of the group will present the content of the article, while the second one will act as a discussant, thus highlighting main problematic points, proposing counter-arguments to the theses argued in the contribution presented by the other presenter, and raising questions to be discussed with the rest of the audience.