Federated state

A federated state (which may be styled any name for an organized political community) is a territorial, constitutional, and political community forming part of a federal union. Such states differ from fully sovereign states, in that federated states have delegated a portion of their sovereign powers to a common agency called a federal government, or a "general government" as it is known in some places. Importantly, when states choose to federate, they lose their standing as persons of international law. Instead, the federal union as a single entity becomes the sovereign state for purposes of international law. This is different from when states Fœderate, in which case they do retain their status as sovereign states under international law. A federated state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory and is a form of regional government.

In some cases, a federation is created from a union of political entities, which are either independent, or dependent territories of another sovereign entity (most commonly a colonial power). In other cases, federated states have been created out of the regions of previously unitary states. Once a federal constitution is formed, the rules governing the relationship between the general (federal) and state powers become part of the federal union's constitutional law and not international law.

In countries with federal constitutions, there is a division of power between the general (federal) government and the member states. These entities - states, provinces, cantons, Länder, etc. - are self-governing within their field of competence and are afforded a degree of constitutionally guaranteed autonomy that varies substantially from one federation to another. Depending on the form the decentralization of powers takes, a federated state's legislative powers may or may not be overruled or vetoed by the federal government. Laws governing the relationship between federal and state powers can be amended through the federal constitution and state constitutions.

List of federating units by federation
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