Haitian Constitutionalism and the Invention of Human Rights

Through the analysis of excerpts from the Haitian constitutions of the first half of the 19th century, the article investigates the characteristics of human rights in post-revolutionary Haitian constitutionalism. From this analysis, an alternative conceptual arrangement is extracted to think about the content of fundamental rights and the modern constitutional order. This conceptual arrangement is expressed in five concepts: universal Black rights; materiality of slavery; diasporic citizenship; abolitionist property; free soil principle; and quilombo nation. The analysis is carried out in dialogue with the thought of Black intellectuals. It is concluded that the Haitian constitutional poetics operates a critique of the hegemonic narratives about the "invention of human rights" and, at the same time, provides a broader and plural moral imaginary for constitutionalism, especially for dealing decisively with the legacy of slavery, colonialism and racism.