Subsidiarity governs where jurisdiction should sit in NWG jurisprudence:
Decisions should occur at the lowest level capable of competently carrying their consequences.
The justification is not that local decisions are automatically wiser but that centralization introduces distance from consequence — the further a decider sits from what they decide, the less they feel its results. So family matters stay largely within families, city-scale systems with cities, cross-border problems with transnational structures. Two limits keep it honest. The competence clause means a level too small to carry a consequence should not hold it — subsidiarity favors the lowest capable level, not simply the lowest. And subsidiarity operates strictly inside constitutional limits: a local community cannot invoke tradition to erase anyone’s basic standing. Locality is a default, not a license. It is the placement counterpart to the consequence ladder, which sets how strong jurisdiction must be as consequence rises.