A Constitutional Court, in federal or quasi-federal countries, defines the degree of centralization or political decentralization. Therefore, this research seeks to identify whether the opening of the Court's decision-making process for the participation of state or subnational entities (such as State Government and Legislative Assembly) can attenuate centralization (these state level actors are heard by the Court or have access to it?). Constitutional Courts can determine the degree of homogeneity of the legal arrangements from a more or less centralized view of the Federal Constitution. Arguments such as the principle of symmetry and that of implicit powers deepen centralization and weaken democracy. Stronger participation of subnational level entities in the formation of decision-making could encourage the Court to grant more political autonomy to the member states in the formulation of their state constitutions.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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