https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/LEGS5227?type=COREThis course focuses on vertical decentralization of governmental powers within the nation state. Next to analysing the different objectives of decentralisation, its configurations, and its core elements as applied in different countries, the course will pay attention to one specific form of decentralization that stands out in academic debates and in negotiations on state-building in practice: federalism. By approaching the phaenomena of 'federalism' through the eyes of decentralized forms of government, the course aims to add legal clarity to this term and its application. Countries addressed in the course are those that commonly referred to as federal (e.g. Belgium, Brazil, India, US, etc.), but also those whose vertical configuration of powers is more ambiguous (UK, Kenya, Spain, Italy).