The article examines the Western experience changes in the boundaries between administrative-territorial entities in the two most common forms of territorial-political organization of the state - unitary and Federal. Attempt to address on the basis of a systematic analysis of the constitutional provisions related to the internal boundaries in the grid of administrative-territorial division of countries such as USA, Canada, Belgium, Brazil, Nigeria, India and other countries. The author comes to the conclusion that the global model of federalism has a special interest in the process of becoming their own forms of Federal relations between the subjects of the Russian Federation, in particular in matters of justification and changes in subnational boundaries. The article highlighted the basic principle, which all adhere to European Federal state - change of the territory and the boundaries between administrative-territorial units shall be based on the opinion or will of the popula- tion of the affected territories, and on the basis of national law. Thus, territorial change must be the result of bilateral expression.