Dual Federalism, Constitutional Openings, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“CRPD”) represents a historic achievement for the global disability rights movement. Yet, when the U.S. Senate refused to ratify it on December 4, 2012, its influence on American law and policy seemed doomed. The Founders, after all, had conceived of a constitutional vision—“dual federalism”—where the federal government acts as the ultimate arbiter of questions of international policy. But dual federalism has not endured. Cities, counties, and states have become key decision-makers in areas once dominated by the federal government, and they have also become champions of the CRPD. This Article explains that “foreign affairs federalism” is at the heart of this paradigm shift. This new status quo reveals that the Constitution leaves ample room for subnational entities to engage on issues of international scale.