Confederate Structure of European States: Theoretical and Historical Aspects

In this paper an experience of confederate structure in European states is studied. The research aims to discover essential characteristics of confederate entities and the nature of considered political and legal phenomenon in the territories of European States. Author refers to concrete historical examples of European states with confederate structure. Whereas essential characteristics of social phenomena maximally appear during the times of genesis and crash, the focus of the work is on the phases of the development of confederate entities. The relevance of the research is defined by application possibilities of confederate structure in the modern world. First, trends of globalization become stronger and integration processes increase. Second, confederation is possible mean to «achieve the peaceful coexistence» among nations in situation of «ethnic tensions». The degree of scientific development of the issue can be described as slight one. The raised problem does not attract much attention in scientific literature. Usually confederation is considered as «some outdated form of little use for modern world». But the criticism of the confederalism takes place thanks in no small part to early surfaced perceptions, which show political and legal phenomenon with strong distortions. The novelty is defined by the author's approach to research of the issue: the political and legal phenomenon is analyzed in processes of its genesis and crash in terms of different historical contexts by the example of pre-existing confederations. The paper consists of an introduction, an introductory paragraph, two chapters including three paragraphs each and a conclusion. In the introductory the paragraph critical report to the concept of confederation is conducted and the self-made definition is suggested. In the first chapter a genesis of confederate entities in European states is described and its essential characteristics are discovered. In the second chapter a crash of confederate entities in European states is researched and its essential characteristics are discovered.