Co-operative federalism is the process by which the Commonwealth and the States organise for their overlapping constitutional powers to be exercised concurrently in order to achieve national outcomes through consensual processes.

Cooperative federalism involves the close cooperation of federal, state, and provincial agencies. Officials of all three branches may be involved in formulating a specific policy. For example, drug enforcement policies involve federal agents working closely with state and local law enforcement officers.

Congress has enacted many environmental statutes that preserve the primary role of the States in achieving environmental quality goals.1 This “cooperative federalism” approach has been described as a partnership between the States and the federal government.2 In these statutes, Congress usually gives federal agencies, often the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a prescribed role to set national standards while leaving the administration, implementation, and enforcement of those standards primarily in the hands of the States.

Co-operative federalism, as practised in Australia, is immanent in the functioning of the federation but has an extra-constitutional dimension. It is designed to serve objectives which go well beyond those achievable by the exercise of Commonwealth legislative power and the separate exercise by the States of their powers.