A
political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller
states. Unlike a
personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity. A
political union may also be called a
legislative union or
state union.
A union may be effected in a number of forms, broadly categorized as:
- federal (or confederal) union
Incorporating union
In an incorporating union a new state is created, the former states being entirely dissolved into the new state (albeit that some aspects may be preserved; see below "
Preservation of interests").
Examples of incorporating union
- Spain (process from 1037 to 1479)
Preservation of interests
Nevertheless a full incorporating union may preserve the laws and institutions of the former states, as happened in the creating of the United Kingdom. This may be simply a matter of practice or to comply with a guarantee given in the terms of the union. For example:
- In the annexation of Brittany to France in 1532, a guarantee was given as to the continuance of laws and of the Estates of Brittany (a guarantee revoked in 1789 at the French Revolution).
- The Treaty of Union for creating the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 contained a guarantee of the continuance of the civil laws and the existing courts in Scotland (a continuing guarantee).
- Tyrol was guaranteed that its Freischütz companies would not be posted to fight outside Tyrol without their consent (a guarantee revoked by the Austrian republic).
Incorporating annexation
In an incorporating annexation a state or states is united to and dissolved in an existing state, whose legal existence continues.
Annexation may be voluntary (as with Montenegro's union into Serbia in 1918) or, which is more frequent, by conquest.
Examples of incorporating annexation
Federal or Confederal union
In a federal or confederal union the states continue in existence but place themselves under a new federal authority. The federal state alone will be the state in international law though the federated states retain an existence in domestic law.
Examples of Federal or Confederal union
Federal or Confederal annexation
If a state becomes a federated unit of another existing state, the latter continuing its legal existence, then that is a federal annexation. The new federated state thus ceases to be a state in international law but retains its legal existence in domestic law, subsidiary to the federal authority.
Examples of federal annexation
- Geneva with Switzerland (1815)
- Texas with the United States of America
(Arguably
Hawaii with the United States of America is an example, but Hawaii was first annexed without statehood.)
Mixed unions
The unification of Italy involved a mixture of unions. The kingdom consolidated around the
Kingdom of Sardinia. Several states voluntarily united with Sardinia to create the
Kingdom of Italy. Others, the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the
Papal States, were conquered and annexed.
The unification of Germany was ultimately a confederal union, but it began in earnest by Prussia's annexation of numerous petty states in 1866.
Historical unions
Reunification movements
At various times various nationalist and irredentist movements promoted ideas of restoration or unification in various places.
Academic analysis
The political position of the
United Kingdom is often discussed; and former states like
Serbia and Montenegro (2003-2006), the
Soviet Union (1922-1991) and the
United Arab Republic (1958-1961).
Lord Durham was widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers in the history of the
British Empire's constitutional evolution. He articulated clearly the difference between a full legislative union and a
federation. In his
1839 Report, in discussing the proposed union of
Upper and Lower Canada, he says:
Two kinds of union have been proposed – federal and legislative. By the first, the separate legislature of each province would be preserved in its present form and retain almost all its present attributes of internal legislation, the federal legislature exercising no power save in those matters which may have been expressly ceded to it by the constituent provinces. A legislative union would imply a complete incorporation of the provinces included in it under one legislature, exercising universal and sole legislative authority over all of them in exactly the same manner as the Parliament legislates alone for the whole of the British Isles.
