Del constitucionalismo global a los nuevos autoritarismos. Desafíos para el derecho comparado

From Global Constitutionalism to New Authoritarianisms.Challenges for Comparative Law. ABSTRACT: The article questions the role of comparative law in the era of democratic backsliding. Actually, although these phenomena are accompanied by a rejection of global constitutionalism, in the name of national specificities, this does not translate into an irrelevance of comparative law. Indeed, very often the new authoritarian regimes justify their choices based on foreign examples that are decontextualized and manipulated, according to a technique that has been defined as “abusive constitutional borrowing”. All this implies a renewed role for comparative law scholars, who are called to play a “de-fensive function”, unmasking the abusive constitutionalism, and monitoring institutional changes. This new task impacts on the selection of research subjects (which should be especially focused on the institutions and rights attacked by the new illiberal forces); on the methodology of the research (which requires a dialogue with the other social sciences, aimed at going beyond the legal norms, to assess their effectiveness); on the dissemination of the results (which must be addressed to the media and the public opinion).