—Emílio Peluso Neder Meyer, Federal University of Minas Gerais, and Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília Brazil’s next elections will be held on Sunday, October 2. More than any other political event since the country’s transition to democracy in 1985, these elections are an inflection point for Brazil’s near and long future. Depending on what
Constitutional Law Should Know Better: Society and Lucky Contingencies in Brazil’s Awakening Democracy
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, Associate Professor at University of Brasília and CAPES/Humboldt Senior Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law “PEC Kamikaze”, “PEC of Despair” or “PEC of the Coup” – This is how a recently approved proposal for constitutional amendment (Proposta de Emenda à Constituição – PEC, in Portuguese) has
The Telegram Conundrum in Brazil
—Gustavo Buss, Master of Laws UFPR, & Estefânia Maria de Queiroz Barboza, Professor of Constitutional Law at UFPR and Uninter The last few years have provided concrete examples of how the political discourse has occupied new corners of the digital arena. The internet has allowed big players to set forth their social media platforms. Furthermore,
The Call for Politics in the Americas: A Constitutional Turning Point?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [Editors’ Note: This is one of our biweekly ICONnect columns. For more information on our four columnists for 2021, please see here.] In his fascinating book Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America, Edmund S. Morgan
What’s New in Public Law
—Vini Singh, Assistant Professor & Doctoral Research Scholar, National Law University Jodhpur, India. In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law. “Developments” may include a selection of links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books and articles, and blog posts from around the public law
The Difference Between Lula and Bolsonaro: What is at Stake?
—Thomas Bustamante, Professor of Philosophy of Law, Federal University of Minas Gerais and Global Research Fellow, New York University The Brazilian Worker’s Party has just released a jingle to promote former Brazilian president Lula da Silva on his 76th birthday, which anticipates the tone of Lula’s campaign for the 2022 presidential elections. The jingle marks
Is Polarization Necessarily Bad? Lessons from Latin America
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [Editors’ Note: This is one of our biweekly ICONnect columns. For more information on our four columnists for 2021, please see here.] Polarization is what several political scientists and constitutional scholars have pointed out as possibly the most troubling sign of
A “Hybrid Coup” in Brazil? Bolsonaro in Desperation Mode
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [Editors’ Note: This is one of our biweekly ICONnect columns. For more information on our four columnists for 2021, please see here.] The statement that coups nowadays occur mostly from within the institutional framework, not by an external act of force, has become
Using Digital Constitutionalism to Curb Digital Populism
—Emilio Peluso Neder Meyer, Federal University of Minas Gerais and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil, and Fabrício Bertini Pasquot Polido, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil On January 6, 2021, the world watched on live stream the result of years and years of political extremism being dumped into American society. Radicalized supporters
The “Metaphor of Waves” in Latin America: A Fragmentary Reality?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [Editors’ Note: This is one of our biweekly ICONnect columns. For more information on our four columnists for 2021, please see here.] Comparative constitutional law has a particular taste for unraveling constitutional waves. Jon Elster, in his Forces and Mechanisms in
