Federal district

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Federal districts are subdivisions of a federal system of government. Often, these districts are not one of the countries' component subdivisions, and should not be confused with them, but are rather separate entities under the direct control of the federal government.

United States

The seat of the U.S. federal government in Washington is a federal district known as the District of Columbia. In addition, the U.S. government has several other kinds of "federal districts" which are not specifically related to a capital city:

• The federal court system divides each state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, into one or more federal judicial districts; a United States District Court and a United States Bankruptcy Court are located in each. There are also federal judicial circuits, each consisting of a group of states (except for the District of Columbia Circuit which consists only of the federal district); Puerto Rico and the United States territorial courts are also assigned to circuits. Each circuit has a United States court of appeals.
• The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, consists of twelve banks located around the country; each of these banks serves a Federal Reserve district.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, the term Federal Territory (Malay: Wilayah Persekutuan) is used for the three territories governed directly by the federal government, namely Kuala Lumpur (national capital), Putrajaya (federal government administrative centre) and Labuan Island (international offshore financial centre).

Latin America

The term Distrito Federal, meaning "Federal District" in both the Spanish and Portuguese languages, is used to refer to:

• Argentine Capital District, known as "Autonomous City of Buenos Aires" since 1996.
• Brazilian Federal District
• Mexican Federal District
• Venezuelan Capital District

Other uses

There are seven Federal districts of Russia, which function as an additional administrative layer between other subdivisions and the Russian Federation as a whole. But these have nothing to do with the territory surrounding a capital city.

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Last updated on Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 12:05:22 PST (GMT -0800)
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