23 September 2022
Pandora’s Box and Nostalgia
Especially over the last three years, people have been demonstrating on the streets of Brazilian cities, expressing their support of Jair Bolsonaro and even demanding the return of military rule. „I authorize“ (military intervention) is a now common cry among Bolsonaro’s sympathizers, often read on banners. Some of the demonstrators are more explicit and openly demand „Military intervention with Bolsonaro“. Why is this happening? Why are these citizens willing to give up their citizen rights not only in favour of a military dictatorship, but of a leader who apparently is capable of seducing, yes, hypnotising them in a way that no General-President during the military dictatorship could ever do? Continue reading >>
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21 September 2022
Constitutionalism under Bolsonaro
On the eve of a fateful election that will determine whether the last four years have been a bad dream and a footnote in Brazil’s political history, or not, the legacy of Bolsonaro’s regime for constitutional law and constitutionalism is widely and expertly discussed. Despite all his rhetorical machismo, Bolsonaro has not governed as a classical autocrat: he was democratically elected and his subsequent administration always found itself between the rock of a fragmented, yet viscerally opportunistic legislature, and the hard place of a judiciary that - while not always unsympathetic to his program - has been primarily interested in safeguarding its autonomy and its (self-)assumed role as the last word on virtually everything. Continue reading >>
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20 September 2022
Bolsonarism at the Ballot Box
If things go badly, the upcoming elections in Brazil may be the last ones for some time to come. Incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro threatens to use the Trump playbook to dispute a possible election loss, counting on the violent support of his highly mobilized followers and parts of the Brazilian military nostalgic for the military dictatorship. His contender, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who initially refused to wear a bullet proof vest, has now taken wear one on his rallies. During his tenure, Bolsonaro has drawn on populist anti-establishment sentiments and authoritarian legacies to develop his own, peculiar brand of illiberal rule known as Bolsonarism. Our symposium discusses Bolsonarism at the ballot box from the perspective of comparative constitutional law. Continue reading >>
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13 August 2022
A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
In Brazil, the National Congress recently passed the Constitutional Amendment no. 123, nicknamed the “Kamikaze Bill” due to it budgetary impact. It qualifies the current situation – inflation, rise of gasoline price, shortage of goods, pandemic to name just a few – as an emergency state, creating financial and tax benefits for biofuel producers and providing welfare payments for part of the population. Continue reading >>
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06 July 2022
Guardian of the Amazon
On 1 July 2022, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) issued a momentous judgment in what has been one of the most important climate litigation cases before the court. In its decision, the STF elevated international environmental law treaties, such as the Paris Agreement, to the status of international human rights treaties in the Brazilian constitutional system – with wide ranging implications at the domestic level. Continue reading >>
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05 May 2022
Constitutional Power Struggle in Brazil
On 20th April 2022, the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) convicted Federal Deputy Daniel Lucio da Silveira to eight years and nine months imprisonment, based on his verbal attacks against the democratic rule of law, Supreme Court judges and other state institutions. The next day, President Bolsonaro issued a controversial decree granting pardon to the Deputy and ordering the immediate extinction of all the punishments imposed by the Supreme Court. Even though the constitutionality of the decree can be debated, the main discussion is a political, not a legal one. Continue reading >>
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25 March 2022
Brazilian Judicial Branch v. Telegram (and Bolsonaro)
On March 18, 2022, the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes suspended Telegram’s functioning in Brazil through an individual injunction. In brief, the platform was blocked because its owners ignored their duty to cooperate with the Brazilian state in the repression of the illicit activities committed over the platform. However, only analyzing the issue’s core misses one of its essential surrounding elements: the direct interest of President Jair Bolsonaro in the free operation of the platform and the growing antagonism between him and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Continue reading >>
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05 November 2021
A Portrait of Bolsonaro’s Crimes Against Humanity
On 26 October 2021, after six months of investigative procedures, a legislative inquiry committee in the Brazilian Senate presented a report charging President Jair Bolsonaro (along with some of his most committed supporters) not only with impeachable conducts, but also with ordinary crimes and possible crimes against humanity. Although it is unlikely that the committee’s report will trigger impeachment or lead to a criminal indictment of Bolsonaro before the end of his term, it has already played a fundamental truth-finding role. Continue reading >>
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04 October 2021
Indigenous Rights and the “Marco Temporal”
At the end of August 2021, Brazil witnessed the largest indigenous mobilisation in its history. Organised by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), more than five thousand indigenous people from 117 different groups set up camp in Brasilia, the capital city of the country. Under the slogan “Fight for Life: our history does not begin in 1988”, indigenous groups from all over the country mobilised the public opinion in protest against the further erosion of their rights. Continue reading >>
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23 June 2021
Military Justice, Journalism and Free Speech in Brazil
On 17 June, 2021, the Attorney-General of the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court affirmed that, in the government's view, the Military Justice has competence to try civilians accused of criminal offences against the honor of military institutions. He proposed that crimes related to the freedom of speech should be tried by a special military branch of the judiciary. The attacks on free speech by the government through the Attorney-General is another sign of the democratic erosion process. Continue reading >>
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