—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
How the Captain Defeated the Army: Bolsonaro Subordinates the Military in Brazil
—Ulisses Levy Silvério dos Reis & Rafael Lamera Giesta Cabral, The Federal University of the Semi-Arid Region Jair Bolsonaro’s victory for the Presidency of Republic in 2018 brought numerous challenges to the Brazilian democratic experience. Since the re-democratization in 1985, the military has never been so close to power as it is now. On the
On Defamation and Intimidation: The Brazilian Attorney General Tries to Silence a Law Professor
—Octávio Luiz Motta Ferraz, Director of the Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London Brazil is not for beginners, so goes the age old saying. But more than two years of Bolsonaro is quickly making the whole world experts in Brazil’s grotesque antidemocratic habits. The most recent episode in this tragic soap opera was the attempt
The Return of Lula in Brazil: New Challenges for Comparative Presidential Studies
—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.] A recent column published in The Economist titled ”The Problem of Latin America’s Proxy Presidents” raises the argument that,
The National Security Law and the Defense of Democratic Institutions in Brazil
—Clèmerson Merlin Clève, Federal University of Paraná and UniBrasil. “That anyone who possesses power has a tendency to abuse it is an eternal truth. They tend to go as far as the barriers will allow.” Baron de Montesquieu Brazil has been through, since the eighties, as of the enactment of the Constitution, a slow process
Lula is Free: The Brazilian Supreme Court’s Habeas Decision and the 2022 Election
—Felipe Oliveira de Sousa, Center for Law, Behaviour and Cognition (CLBC), Ruhr-Universität Bochum On March 8, 2021, Judge Edson Fachin from the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) made a decision that might decisively affect the course of the next presidential elections in Brazil, in 2022. Judge Fachin ordered the annulment of all decisions taken on four
The Historian of the Future in Brazilian Democracy: The Challenges of Interpreting and Comparing Events of Our Own Time
—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.] For a Brazilian, the prospect of Trump winning the US presidential elections in 2020 could mean that Brazil, with
Undemocratic Legislation to Undermine Freedom of Speech in Brazil
—Ulisses Levy Silvério dos Reis, The Federal University of the Semi-Arid Region – UFERSA, and Emilio Peluso Neder Meyer, The Federal University of Minas Gerais The 2018 general elections put the Brazilian political scenario in the center of the global debate on illiberal governments and democratic erosion. Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army officer who was
Constitutionalism and Multi-Level Governance: Ran Hirschl on Megacities in Constitutional Democracies
—Estefânia Maria de Queiroz Barboza, Federal University of Paraná, and Lucas Henrique Muniz da Conceição, Birkbeck College, University of London On October 30, the Brazilian Chapter of the ICON-S promoted an international conference on the theme of Megacities and Constitutional Law. Presenting his novel academic contribution Prof. Ran Hirschl provided a keynote address regarding his
