Book Review: Die Kompetenzstruktur des modernen Bundesstaates in rechsverglei-chender Sicht
| Author | Geoffrey Sawer |
| Date | 01 June 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X7800900207 |
| Published date | 01 June 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
250 Federal Law Review
[VOLUME
9
Report;10 on police complaints procedures, the Maloney Report;ll
on
police organisation and powers, the Carmody Report
12
and the Hope
Report.
13
At
least Ithink these are all omitted
or
inadequately covered
but as there
is
no bibliography and the .index
is
inadequate~
something
could have slipped under my guard.
In
summary, it
is
adisappointing concoction. R.
W.
HARDING*
Die Kompetenzstruktur des modernen Bundesstaates in reehsverglei-
chender Sieht by
MICHAEL
BOTHE.
(Springer-Verlag, Berlin,
1977),
pp. i-xiv, 1-352. Cloth, recommended retail price U.S.$54.60 (ISBN:
3
54008111
9).
Dr
Bothe, afellow
of
the
Max
Planck Institute for Foreign Public
Law and International
Law
at
Heidelberg, has written this survey of
federal constitutional structures as
part
of astudy of co-operative
federalism undertaken by his Institute.
An
historical introduction
referring to very many federal and quasi-federal states shows
an
envi-
able familiarity with documentary sources in many languages. T'he
author
then narrows his view to the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Switzer-
land and West Germany,
and
sets
out
in
an
admirably clear, concise
manner
the main features of their federal structure,
but
concentrating
more particularly on the distribution of legislative, executive and
financial competence between centre and regions.
The
last-named topic
is
the original and highly analytical core of the
work.
It
has several tables which bring to attention with unusual
vividness the important differences between the
five
chosen systems,
and the interrelation of these differences.
The
discussion of financial
competence
is
particularly valuable, with its discussion of input and
output questions in a
manner
familiar to
German
constitutional
scholars, but
not
so
well known to those of the British-derived systems.
Dr
Bothe worked under distinguished scholars, American
(at
Ann
Arbor, Michigan) and in Germany, and Iwould not presume to
criticise any of his observations save the Australian, and those only
on
fairly fine points of interpretation
or
expression.
10
Report
of
the
Royal
Commission on the September Moratorium Demonstration
(Government Printer, Adelaide, 1971).
11
Report to the Metropolitan Toronto Board
of
Commissioners
of
Police:
Review 0/ Citizen-Police Complaints Procedures (May 1975).
12
Carmody, Minute Paper, Report to Attorney-General, National Law Enforce-
ment
Authority (N.P. April 1974).
13
Royal
Commission on Intelligence and Security, 1st, 2nd, 4th Reports
(A.G.P.S., 1977). Whilst the Hope Report only became available after publication
of
this book, the issues it
is
concerned with have been amajor matter
of
concern
to students of policing since
at
least August 1974 when the Royal Commission
was set up.
*Associate Professor of Law, University of Western Australia,
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