The European Charter of Local Self-Government ─ A Treaty for Local Democracy

The 1985 European Charter of Local Self-Government secures the autonomy of local government within states and sets the standards for subsidiarity at the local level.

In this first critical analysis of the charter, Chris Himsworth analyses the text of the 1985 European Charter of Local Self-Government, traces its historical emergence and explains how it has been applied and interpreted throughout Europe, including the 2014 'Local and regional democracy in the United Kingdom' report published by the Council of Europe in March 2014. Locating the Charter's own history within the broader recent history of the Council of Europe and the European Union, the book closes with an assessment of the Charter's future prospects.

Chris Himsworth is Emeritus Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Edinburgh, where he has taught, researched and written on public law since 1974. During the period 1997-2013 he was the UK member of the Group of Independent Experts of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. He is the co-author ofScotland's Constitution: Law and Practice (2015).