St. Thomas Law Review
First Page
321
Document Type
Article
Abstract
In 1788, Benjamin Franklin wrote to some European friends just after the United States Constitution was signed in Philadelphia, "I send you. . . the proposed new federal Constitution for these states [i]f it succeeds, I do not see why you might not in Europe [do the same] by forming a Federal Union and one grand republic of all the different states and kingdoms; by means of a like Convention, for we had many interests to reconcile." Here, in the twenty-first century, Americans still measure their system of federalism with reference to the same document to which Franklin referred. It was not until the mid-twentieth century, however, that the European Union began its evolution in the direction of a federal system. The New World's experiment in federalism is over two centuries old, while the Old World's continental effort is really just beginning.
Recommended Citation
Alfred R. Light,
Environmental Federalism in the United States and the European Union: A Harmonic Convergence,
15
St. Thomas L. Rev.
321
(2002).
Available at:
https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol15/iss2/4