Confederation

Confederation

Confederation, in political terminology, a union of sovereign states each of which is free to act independently. It is distinguished from a federation, in which the individual states are subordinate to the central government.

Confederations existed in ancient times, notably the Delian League, formed under Athenian leadership in the 5th century bc to resist Persian aggression, and the Achaean and Aetolian leagues of the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries bc, which were prominent in the Hellenistic world.

In modern times the term confederation is applied to a joining together of formerly independent states to create a single political unit. The New England Confederation, formed in 1643 and lasting for more than 40 years, is the earliest example of confederation in America. During the American Revolution, the former colonies set up a confederation and stated its purposes in the Articles of Confederation. After experience had demonstrated that this form of organization was too weak, the position of the Federalists, who argued that the former colonies should form a federation, was embodied in the U.S. Constitution. The southern states that seceded in 1861, believing that the federal union impinged on the sovereignty of the several states, formed themselves into a confederation, the Confederate States of America. The so-called Confederation of the Canadian colonies occurred in 1867, although technically the Canadian form of government is a federation.

Several short-lived attempts at confederation appeared in 19th-century Europe, such as the German Confederation established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the downfall of Napoleon, and the North German Confederation of 1866-70, a transitional organization preceding the establishment of the German Empire. (1)

Definition of Confederation

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Confederation :

A formal association of states loosely bound by a treaty, in many cases one establishing a central governing mechanism with specified powers over member states but not directly over citizens of those states. In a confederation, the constituent states retain their national sovereignty and consequently their right to secession.

Note: explore also the meaning of this legal term in the American Ecyclopedia of Law.

Confederation and other Unión of States

Embracing mainstream international law, this section on confederation explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.

“The world community is a complex of juridical relations, created and recognized by sovereign States; in this complex, the State should be considered a simple international person. As the bearer of territorial sovereignty the State remains the primary independent subject of international law. To the confederation in the wider sense also belongs the federation. A federation is a single sovereign State whose decentralization and internal structure depend solely on internal constitutional law. It is this constitutional order which also determines how far a federation and its member states may concern themselves with international matters. Colonies, dominions, mandate territories and trusteeship territories are dependent on a State or an international organization to such a degree that their lack of sovereignty precludes designating them as confederations.” (2)

Confederation

Resources

Notes and References

1. Encarta Online Encyclopedia

See Also

• Constitution
• Confederacy
• Federalism

Compare federal state.

Further Reading

• The entry “confederation” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press