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21 - Illiberal Constitutionalism and the Abuse of Constitutional Identity

from Part IV - Emerging Trends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

By
Gábor Halmai  and
Julian Scholtes
Edited by
Ran Hirschl  and
Yaniv Roznai
Ran Hirschl
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Yaniv Roznai
Affiliation:
Reichman University, Israel
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Summary

Increasingly, illiberal and authoritarian governments are seizing upon the concept of constitutional identity in order to justify and vindicate their political projects in the face of external criticism. This contribution raises questions about what these invocations tell us about the normative value of constitutional identity. The authors argue that, in the European context of supranational legal integration, constitutional identity should not be seen as an unconditional source of value. Invocations of constitutional identity only deserve recognition to the extent that they serve the ideals of constitutionalism. Where constitutional identity is invoked as a normative argument, the normative expectation of constitutionalism is implied – claims from constitutional identity that stand at odds with the ideals of constitutionalism, in fact, invoke the former ironically and frivolously. Exemplary cases in which constitutional identity is invoked to justify forms of ‘illiberal’ constitutionalism – notably the Polish and Hungarian cases – should be considered abuses of the concept as they do not live up to the normative expectations which they evoke.

Keywords

constitutional identityconstitutionalismilliberalismpopulismHungaryPolandEUabusive constitutionalism
Type
Chapter
Information
Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism
The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity
 , pp. 272 - 285
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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