Coconstitutionalism

{{Short description|Government form}}

Coconstitutionalism is where two institutional cultures exist in a complex semi-autonomous relationship to each other.{{Cite book |last1=Jr |first1=Anthony F. Lang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ix06DwAAQBAJ&q=Constitutionalism |title=Handbook on Global Constitutionalism |last2=Wiener |first2=Antje |date=2017-10-27 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |isbn=978-1-78347-735-7 |language=en}} The model of asymmetrical devolution that has emerged in democratic Spain has been called "coconstitutional" in that it is neither a federal nor a unitary model of government: autonomous nation-regions exist alongside and within the Spanish nation-state in a relatively dynamic relationship.{{Cite book |last=Grimm |first=Dieter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRABDQAAQBAJ&q=Constitutionalism |title=Constitutionalism: Past, Present, and Future |date=2016-09-08 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-109095-0 |language=en}}

Similarities to federalism are marked although a key difference lies in the legal status of a federal-state versus a notionally unitary coconstitutional one: in a federation, it is the states who legally transfer powers to the federal government (bottom up) whereas in a unitary state power is devolved from the nation-state down to the regions (top down) and can in theory be revoked. Political conflict between Catalonia and Spain resulted in the 2017–2018 Spanish constitutional crisis.{{Cite news |date=2017-09-08 |title=Spain Catalonia: Court blocks independence referendum |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41196677 |access-date=2025-01-18 |language=en-GB}}

Since 1997, the UK government has pursued a similar coconstitutional model of devolution with regard to its nation-regions.

Five regions in Italy, namely Aosta Valley, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily, and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, have special forms of autonomy.{{Cite book |last=Popelier |first=Patricia |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Routledge_Handbook_of_Subnational_Consti/bqw_EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=South+Tyrol+and+Trentino+Constitutionalism&pg=PT302&printsec=frontcover |title=Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism |last2=Delledonne |first2=Giacomo |last3=Aroney |first3=Nicholas |date=2021-09-21 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-40668-9 |language=en}}