In her book Asymmetry, Multinationalism and Constitutional Law, Managing Legitimacy and Stability in Federalist States (Routledge, 2020 and 2022), Maja Sahadžić explores the reasons behind differential constitutional arrangements within one state from a comparative perspective. Her approach in the book is based on identifying three main indicators of differentiation, such as status, powers, and fiscal autonomy, and using them to link them to the factors and trends that support differentiation such as power ratio, an absence of centrifugal features of the central level, historical reasons, separatist threats, and wealth. At the same time, the book confirms that some factors and trends work oppositely from those expected. To support and further elaborate her qualitative and empirical analyses, she uses 15 carefully selected country studies. One of those is China with special positioning of Hong Kong and Macau and the consequences that differential positioning together brings for their legitimacy and stability. This presentation is envisaged as a brief book outline and an exchange on central issues that will be presented during the seminar.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Maja Sahadžić is Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, Visiting Professor at University of Antwerp, Senior Research Fellow at Law Institute in B&H, and Affiliated Scholar at Center for Comparative and Transnational Law at CUHK.