The doctrine of nullification in the American constitutionalism in the early period of the Republic

The doctrine of nullifi cation was one of the most important threads developed in the American political and legal papers published in the early Republic. The doctrine functioned as an element of Republican constitutionalism whose foundations grew in the millieu of democratic republicans in the last decade of the 18th century. The nullifi cation was tantamount to the right of the States to annul the federal laws that the States found to be inconsistent with the federal Constitution. The doctrine of nullifi cation is detectable in the papers written by John Taylor but its formulation is due to Thomas Jefferson who drew up its assumptions in the project of the Kentucky Resolutions in 1798. In the course of time the doctrine laid the foundations for the procedure designed to settle disputes within the American federal system and functioned as an alternative device vis-a-vis the judicial review.