Competing Conceptions of Subsidiarity

Appeals to a Principle of Subsidiarity has become popular due to its aspirations to address the allocation or use of authority within a political order, typically those where authority is dispersed between a centre and various member units. However, considerations of subsidiarity will seldom resolve disagreements about the allocation of authority. To illustrate how different conceptions of subsidiarity have profoundly different implications for constitutional and institutional design, the article first consider four different theories before turning to some implications as seen in the discussions about US federalism, debates in Europe about the EU and the European Court of Human Rights, and international law