Law Commons^™

Bridging the fields of federalism and negotiation theory, Negotiating Federalism analyzes how public actors navigate difficult federalism terrain by negotiating directly with counterparts across state-federal lines. In contrast to the stylized, zero-sum model of federalism that dominates political discourse and judicial doctrine, it demonstrates that the boundary between state and federal power is negotiated on scales large and small, on an ongoing basis. The Article is also the first to recognize the procedural tools that bilateral federalism bargaining offers to supplement unilateral federalism interpretation in contexts of jurisdictional overlap. The Article begins by situating its inquiry within the central federalism …