Federative logic

The Commonwealth of Australia is in substance an integrative federation in the sense that the terms of the Australian Constitution were almost wholly determined by the representatives and electors of several mutually independent bodies politic, the self-governing colonies of Australia. As such, the Australian Constitution presents a particular kind of federating logic which makes it comparable, in varying degrees, with other covenanted associations, particularly other integrative federations, such as Switzerland and the United States, the two decisive models for the Australian framers. Since the terms and structure of the Australian Constitution were determined in this manner, it seems reasonable to suppose that a theory of the Constitution will not effectively account for the textual detail and structural relationships contained therein unless it interprets these in the light of the federating logic that shaped the deliberations of the 1890s.