Perspectives on Federalism starts off its ninth year with this issue which gathers, as usual, a series of multi-disciplinary pieces. Almost two years have passed since we started our collaboration with De Gruyter, and our journal has since then enjoyed continued growth and has been acquiring international visibility. 2017 is going to be rich in surprises for our readers, with a wealth of interesting projects and special issues which will increase the already high standard of the journal. 2016 was also a very challenging year for scholars interested in federalism; the start of the Trump Presidency and the results of the referendum on Brexit held on 23 June 2016 are just two examples.