Intrastate conflicts and lessons learnt from the marijuana legalisation

This seminar is hosted by the Centre for American Legal Studies and the School of Law Research Seminar Series. Our series offers exciting insights into ongoing research projects within the law school and conducted by our external research partners. We often feature work from our three research centres (the Centre for American Legal Studies, the Centre for Human Rights, and the Centre for Science, Law and Policy). Our work is often transdisciplinary, dealing with law's relationship with broadly defined social justice, policy-making, science and much more. Join us for invigorating discussion!

In this session, we hear from Dr Ilaria Di Gioia. Dr Di Gioia is a Senior Lecturer in Law and Associate Director of the Centre for American Legal Studies at Birmingham City University, UK. Her research focuses on American federalism.  In particular, she is interested in the role of the courts in setting the balance between central and local government and, more widely, the various ways in which constitutional law interacts with the political process. She is a cross-disciplinary academic and uses mixed research methods from political science and law to study constitutional change.

In this session, Dr Di Gioia will give the following presentation, followed by an interactive Q&A:

Intrastate conflicts and lessons learnt from the marijuana legalisation

Abstract: Legalisation of recreational marijuana has gained momentum in the United States. As of September 2021, 18 states and Washington D.C. have legalised recreational marijuana. The relatively broad support at state level, however, has not always been reflected at local level. For example, in California (which has been at the forefront of efforts to liberalise marijuana laws since 1996) two-thirds of municipalities banned marijuana cultivation and retail sales and in 2019 twenty-five local governments sued the state to block local home delivery of marijuana. In New Jersey, about one in four municipalities has introduced or adopted ordinances barring cannabis-related businesses. Remarkably, some states have left localities free to opt of the legalisation and to impose local bans on dispensaries, grow facilities and manufacturers of the substance. In New Jersey and New York, for example, states have set a deadline for municipalities to opt out of legalisation. States have responded allowing municipalities to opt out with different statutory and constitutional provisions. Using marijuana as a case study in a compromise between state and local government competing interests, this talk explores the often-overlooked area of police powers granted to local municipalities.

If you have any questions, contact Iyan Offor, the Research Seminar Series leader, at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk.

This seminar has now concluded but it is available on demand here. If you find that you do not have access, you can email the research seminar series leader at iyan.offor@bcu.ac.uk in order to gain access.