In this article I
explore the relationship between illiberalism and human rights. In so doing I
shall analyse the reasons behind the illiberal aversion to the super-legality
demanded by constitutionalism, which is seen – by the champions of illiberalism
– as a source of alleged depoliticization. As we shall see, contrary to what is
often implicitly argued in the literature, human rights (and constitutionalism)
have been attacked not only by right wing illiberalism, but also by leftwing
forms of illiberalism and this is an area that I would like to explore.
Before getting to the
central part of my argument, however, I shall define what I mean by illiberalism
and afterwards I shall identify some elements that can be traced back to what I
call the illiberal constitutional counter-narrative. Finally, building on these
reflections I shall focus on the role of rights.