Federalism in a Changing World contains the scientific background papers, proceedings, and plenary speeches presented at the International Conference on Federalism 2002 held in St Gallen, Switzerland, in August 2002.

The three principal topics of the conference were federalism and foreign relations; federalism, decentralization and conflict management in multicultural societies; and assignment of responsibilities and fiscal federalism. The volume comprises texts by more than seventy authors from twenty countries throughout the world.

Contributors include Duada Abubakar (University of Maiduguri, Nigeria), José Roberto Afonso (Brazilian Bank of Development, Brazil), Giuliano Amato (vice-president of the European Convention, Italy), Nicholas Aroney(University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia), Lidija R. Basta Fleiner University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Richard Bird (University of Toronto, Canada), Raoul Blindenbacher (executive director, International Conference on Federalism 2002, Switzerland), Jean Chrétien (prime minister of Canada), Richard Crook (University of Sussex, UK), Bernard Dafflon (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Joseph Deiss (head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland), Udo Diedrichs (University of Cologne, Germany), Bernhard Ehrenzeller (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland), Lars P. Feld (University of Marburg, Germany), George Fernandes (minister of Defence of the Republic of India), Sergio Guimarâes Ferreira (Brazilian Bank of Development, Brazil), Thomas Fleiner (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Xóchitl Gálvez (Presidential Office for Indigenous People, United Mexican States), Beat Habegger (University of St Gallen, Switzerland), Nicholas R.L. Haysom (University of Wiwatersrand and former legal advisor to the President, South Africa), William John Hopkins (University of Hull, UK), Rudolf Hrbek (University of Tübingen, Germany), Thomas O. Hueglin (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada), Claude Jeanrenaud (University of Neuchatel, Switzerland), Isabelle Joumard (Economics Department of the OECD, France), Walter Kälin (University of Berne, Switzerland), Jakob Kellenberger (former secretary of state of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland), Michael J. Kelly (deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law The University of Melbourne, Australia), Rahmatullah Kahn (Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Lund, Sweden/India), John Kincaid (Lafayette College, USA), Gebhard Kirchgässner (University of St Gallen, Switzerland), Arnold Koller (former president of the Swiss Confederation), Vojislav Kostunica (president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Yves Lejeune (Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium), Wolf Linder (University of Berne, Switzerland), Giorgio Malinverni (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Tim McCormack (The University of Melbourne, Australia), Ruth Metzler-Arnold (head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, Switzerland), Flora Musonda (Economic and Social Research Foundation, Tanzania), Radmila Nakarada (Institute of European Studies, Belgrade, Yugoslavia), Wallace E. Oates (University of Maryland, USA), Martin Polaschek (University of Graz, Austria), Bob Rae (honorable chairman of the Forum of Federations, Canada), Johannes Rau (President of the Federal Republic of Germany), Ash Narain Roy (Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi, India), Nafis Sadik (special advisor to the United Nations Secretary General and former UNFPA executive director, Pakistan), Cheryl Saunders ( The University of Melbourne, Australia), Antonin Scalia (associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America), Benjamin Schindler (Federal Office of Justice, Switzerland), Nicolas Schmitt (University of Fribourg, Switzerland), Wolfgang Schüssel (federal chancellor of the Republic of Austria), Anwar Shah (lead economist of the World Bank, USA/ Pakistan/Canada), Daniel Thürer (University of Zürich, Switzerland), Touré Amadou Toumani (president of the Republic of Mali), François Vaillancourt (University of Montreal, Canada), Ricardo Varsano (Institute for Applied Economic Research, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Guy Verhofstadt (prime minister of the Kingdom of Belgium), Kaspar Villiger (president of the Swiss Confederation), Jürgen von Hagen (University of Bonn, Germany), Ronald L.Watts (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada), and Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne, Germany).