INTERNATIONAL LAW AS A CONSTRAINT AND CATALYST FOR SUBNATIONAL AUTONOMY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION

Abstract

Globalization has drastically changed the character and functioning of international law, and this additionally had an immense effect on national governance structures. Whereas international law is usually focused on relations between sovereign nations, modern global legal systems, now have immediate consequences on subnational governance, particularly in the fields of trade, investment, environmental protection, climate change, and human rights The structural incompatibility between federal and quasi-federal states' decentralized application of responsibilities and centralized treaty-making competence is the fundamental basis of the research topic. Even if a sovereign nation assumes international duties, subnational governments which exercise constitutionally guaranteed domestic autonomy frequently remain responsible for executing them out. This generates complex legal disputes between internal constitutional decentralization and consistent international compliance. The dynamic and constant characteristics of this tension is not appropriately addressed by existing research, which usually describes it as both a governance failure or a loss of sovereignty. The chapter makes the argument that subnational autonomy ought not to be primarily restricted by international law. International legal requirements, on the contrary side, restrict arbitrary local authority by adopting norms of adherence, due diligence, and responsibility that restrict subnational regulatory space. Yet, by strengthening subnational organizations, promoting rights-based governance, supporting participation within multi-level global frameworks, and promoting legal harmonization and capacity-building at the level of local governments, international law acts like a catalyst. Subnational authorities have become progressively greater players in satisfying international obligations by the execution of treaties, systems for reporting, and the widespread implementation of norms. This chapter describes subnational autonomy as the execution of internal sovereign functions within a unified state instead of as independent sovereignty. It ultimately arrives at the conclusion that the interaction between international law and subnational autonomy is illustrative of a wider shift towards multi-level governance, where by globalization transforms constitutional autonomy but does not entirely eradicate it.