Constitutional Tools of Managing Ethnic Diversity in Multinational Federations

About the author:

Artur N. Mochalov, Cand. Sci. (Jur.), Associate Professor, Department of Constitutional Law, Ural State Law University (Yekaterinburg); artur.mochalov@usla.ru

Abstract:

This article studies the basic means of ethnic diversity management implemented in the constitutional law of modern multinational federations. While the majority of the current studies in the field either criticize or justify multinational (or ethnic) federalism, this article aims to describe, and briefly analyze the tools for accommodation of various ethnic groups within a single legal and political space most frequently applied in modern multinational federations. Such tools include the following: recognition of legal personality of ethnic groups and their group rights; linguistic rights and linguistic policy; representation of ethnic groups in public authorities; distribution of powers between the federation and sub-federal units; “positive discrimination”, advisory bodies, associations, and national-cultural autonomies; legal recognition of customs and traditional social organization of separate ethnic groups inhabiting certain regions.

Based on comparative legal methodology, the author analyzes peculiarities of consolidation of the abovementioned tools in constitutions of various multinational states, such as Belgium, India, Spain, Canada, Russia, Switzerland, Ethiopia, and South Africa. He concluded that the considered tools are used on the one hand in order to preserve the identity of ethno-cultural communities, their languages and traditions, on the other hand — to facilitate their integration into public and state life, to overcome imbalances in the development of regions inhabited by different ethnic groups, reduce inter-ethnic tensions. This article provides the author’s explanation of the category “multinational federalism” as well.

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