Can you have bilateral realtionships between states within a country?

Question

For example. A country has at least 5 states

If there was a federal policy on an major issue made by the federal govt, how would the states and the federal government manage and run these polices bilaterally?

Is this considered a bilateral relationship between the states and the federal government OR

since theres more than two states involved here would that be considered a multilateral approach in managing and implementing a policy within these states.

What happens if it was a policy made and legislated by a STATE. Can it be managed and administered WITH the federal govt therefore it is considered a bilateral relationship with each individual state with there own policy on a issue like air pollution.

Answer 1

You ask a lot of questions within the one heading....

First off...specifically

Under our Federal Constitution, no two states can enter into a separate agreement between themselves, that effectively elminates the participation of the other states or the federal government.

We had a little war over that back in the 1860's, you may have read about it in school.

Second, in general

Any legislation proposed by a state must first pass the review muster of it's own Supreme Court under the State's Constitution, and then review under the Federal Constiution.  There is an exception to this, the Federal Court will NOT review a question of law interpreted under a State Constitution.  This means that if a state passes an amendment which expands civil liberties over and above the civil rights granted by the US Constitution, the Federal Court system is precluded from reviewing that particular amendment, unless that amendment restricts the freedoms granted under the Constitution.  

As far as your question concerning bi-lateral versus multi-lateral issues...I think the first paragraph covers that, but I need to add that the Federal Government is also precluded from entering into agreements with the separate states that might exclude other states, unless it is a specific agreement to that state.  I.e. Nevada has no international shipping ports (it is landlocked) therefore it cannot be included in agreements or legislation concerning the regulation of international shipping.

Finally, your air pollution example.

If a state has more restrictive air pollution standards than the Federal Government, the Feds cannot intervene and loosen those restrictions, but if the State decides to have looser restricitions, the Federal Government cannot do anything other than suspend funding for projects directly or at least tangentally related to air pollution control.