Mission Statement

             The Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy, a research center located within the State University of New York, University at Buffalo Law School, is dedicated to the study of the ways in which law, politics, and principles of democratic self-governance intersect at the state and local (subnational) level.  The Center’s activities focus on issues of political practice and governmental structure, with a special emphasis on questions of public participation, power distribution, decentralization, and democratic responsiveness.  Specific topics of interest to the Center include the distribution of governmental authority among different levels of government; the distribution of power between public and private stakeholders; the nature and function of organic charters, including state constitutions and local government charters; the structure and operation of democratic institutions and processes at the subnational level; the relationships among place, citizenship, and identity; and regional questions of distributional justice.  The Center also maintains an interest in topics more traditionally identified with state and local government law, including questions of home rule, fiscal policy, land use, and regional governance.  The Center’s interests and activities are multidisciplinary, and its faculty affiliates are drawn from departments and disciplines across the university.