The EU’s Calhounian moment

LAST SUMMEREUEUEUECJECJ it was impossible to discuss the without someone mentioning Alexander Hamilton. The decision to issue €750bn ($895bn) in collective debt sent wonks scurrying to history books (or the musical). A lively debate followed over whether this indeed amounted to a Hamiltonian moment, as in 1790 when the young American founding father persuaded the new country to assume the debts of its states. Time might have been better spent boning up on another figure from the republic’s early history, John C. Calhoun. At first glance, an antebellum vice-president and supporter of slavery has few lessons for the . But he was also the main advocate of nullification: the right for states to strike down federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. This fight over legal supremacy began with a refusal to enforce tariffs in South Carolina in the 1830s and ended three decades later in civil war.Two centuries on, a similar debate is throwing the ’s legal order into question. Last month, Germany’s constitutional court paused ratification of the debt plan until the court had examined it. The decision could just be legal housekeeping, but some fear it may be more. Last year, the German court declared that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg had overstepped its mandate in the way it allowed a quantitative easing programme by the European Central Bank. Poland’s top court has taken to ignoring the ’s rulings. In France, officials discuss ways of circumventing an decision that struck down a data-retention law, claiming that it clashes with the country’s constitution. However much Europeans may resist the idea, they face a “Calhounian moment”.