The subject of the article is the transformation of the idea of natural law into the idea of natural rights, which took place in Europe between Greek and Roman Antiquity and the 17th century, the last stage of this process was the origin of the idea human rights in the 18th century. The author focuses on the most important aspects of this evolution: the transition from the understanding of law as a rational order to its conception as an expression of will, giving up the justification of law by human natural goals and taking up its justification by human desires. Finally, the author refers to the conception of Hannah Arendt, who argued that the identification of the source of political order with subjective rights, understood as pre-political, leads to the destabilization of the political sphere and the identification of authority with violence. The result is the extinction of individuality,
which took place in totalitarian regimes.
