The Federalism Project aims to contribute to legal scholarship crucial for a modern debate about improving Australia’s constitutional division of power.

The Project will proceed in two stages. The first stage will see the development of a robust theoretical framework which will establish a series of coherent principles against which the practice of Australian federalism can be assessed. In the second stage, this framework will be applied to develop practical solutions to specific problems in the constitutional division of federal responsibility in contemporary Australia. Possible case studies include water management and health services.

The Project is underpinned by a commitment to federalist theory and so views the dismantling of Australia’s federal system by abolition of the States as neither realistic nor desirable. Instead, the project is focussed on reform of the existing federal relationship so as to capitalise upon its strengths and to better meet the challenges facing 21 st century Australia.

This Project is supported through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project Scheme until 2012.

The Resource Page for the Centre's Federalism Project is available here.