2455.19 - The Home Rule System

2455.19

The Home Rule System

10

Bachelor degree or equivalent with adequate component of law

The purpose of the course is to give the students a thorough legal knowledge about and ability to interpret and administer the Faroese home rule system both as a practical legal and political arrangement and put in a broader theoretical and comparative context.

The course begins with a historical perspective on the constitutional position of the Faroe Islands. Then the constitutional position of the Faroes is compared with other lands (or polities) in the Danish Kingdom, in particular Iceland until 1918. After this introduction, the course continues with a discussion of the history and the preparatory work to the current Home rule act. Then follows a substantive discussion of the particular provisions in the Home rule act. Next will be discussed and reviewed various opinions and theories on the fundamental constitutional position of the Faroe Islands within the Danish Kingdom. Significant is the description and analysis of the fundamental change and broadening of Home rule competences that was the result of the two acts in 2005 on the transfer of competences to the Faroese authorities and on the conclusion of international agreements respectively. The latter part of the course will to a significant extent focus on the theory about autonomy and comparison with arrangements in other parts of the world.

40 hours. The main classes will consist of presentations from teacher and exercises in addition to potential student presentations.

The students shall among other things be able to: - Explain the constitutional position of the Faroe Islands in historical and comparative perspective. - Demonstrate a thorough substantive knowledge of the Home rule act and the two supplementing acts on the transfer of competences to the Faroese authorities and on the conclusion of international agreements respectively. - Explain and account for different conceptions of the Danish unitary state theory (“rigsenheden”) and the theory of delegated powers, and how these theories are grounded in the Danish constitution (grundlov) and other constitutional sources. - Describe what the re-arrangement in 2005 was all about, and why it was of great significance as a matter of principle. - Explain and elaborate on the tensions between the metropolitan authorities and the sub-unit that are particular to the Home rule area of Danish constitutional law, and explain how this might be a challenge to traditional constitutional notions of hierarchy. - Critically analyze the current home rule arrangement in a theoretical and comparative perspective.

4 hour written exam.

External

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Kristian Joensen: Materials – available on the Moodle network.

Kristian Joensen