[From the Introduction]. The designation "United States of America" appears to have used for the first time in 1776, in the closing paragraph of the Declaration of Independence issued by the Continental Congress. Almost two centuries later, in 1948, Winston Churchill applied a similar assignation, "the United States of Europe," to capture one vision of a future face for Western Europe. The first was a declaration, and the second, a statement of inspiration. As the European Community (EC) evolved into the European Union (EU), parallels between it and the United States have been sought. In this essay, I follow in that line by considering how federalism, as a concept and as a reality, has been molded in the hands of judges. The trajectories of federalism may, however, explain more about how courts consolidate and wield their power than about center and periphery relations. Even so, the evolution of federalism, which carries different connotations in Europe and the U.S., bears the clear fingerprints of judges
