LONDON — Brazil is not a paradise of legal security and institutional stability — which has already become clear to anyone who has tried to undertake a business in the country.
But it was much worse.
Before 1988, “the legal framework was very fragile. In law schools, little was taught about constitutional law, only civil, procedural and criminal law. This was the country’s legal basis for many decades,” recalled the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, in a panel at the I Brazilian Legal Forum of Ideas, organized by Grupo Voto here in London. Brazil Journal is media partner of the event.
The event aims to discuss ideas to improve legal and institutional security in Brazil through dialogue between authorities and the private sector.
For him, the country’s institutional stability began to be built “little by little” from 1988 onwards, with the return of democracy and the new Constitution.
“We need to preserve what was built, but preserve and move forward,” he said. “And I think we have some improvements to make to our structure and framework. Maybe improve this coalition presidentialism, where the Executive needs to coexist and dialogue with a Congress with 19 parties and more than 30 approved by the TSE.”
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Jorge Messias, the Union’s Attorney General, praised the advances of recent decades, but made considerations.
“Our Constitution has bequeathed many challenges that we are facing. It is a closed regime in which many social rights were enshrined, as well as the welfare state, and this opened up a series of issues that we have to deal with in our daily lives,” he said.
One of these issues is litigation.
“Society sought more rights and resources and evidently the State became very targeted,” said the head of the AGU. “On the other end, we have a very complex tax system, which we are trying to reform now.”
Messias recalled that the country has 85 million open cases and is in position 124 (out of 190) in the ranking of best countries to do business.
“Judicialization, excessive litigation and predatory litigation have been delaying factors,” he said. “At the Federal Advocacy Office we have faced this with a strong movement towards dejudicialization.”
He said that even before his administration, the AGU had already started to recognize the arguments in which it was defeated and to make Union lawyers and farm attorneys aware not to appeal just for the sake of appealing, giving up more than 2 million appeals within the scope alone. of the STJ.
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Alexandre Cordeiro, the president of CADE, recalled that from 2000 to 2010, Brazil issued 75,517 new standards, “more than 20 standards per day.”
“It is not a criticism of the need to make reforms or regulate, but we have to be aware that this norm has a target, and that the target is Brazilian society, the private sector.”
Cordeiro also recalled the obvious — but it needs to be repeated.
“The private sector needs predictability to make its investments,” he said. “If they don’t know where their resources go and how this happens – in terms of merits and processes – this generates increased costs. Without predictability there is risk, and risk is cost. And then the private sector has two things to do: either not invest or price it.”
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Minister Gilmar Mendes, from the STF, also recognized some points for improvement.
“We have to discuss the Government’s arrangements. They complain a lot about competition between the Powers: about the STF advancing in Legislative powers, or about the Legislative advancing in Executive powers, such as budgetary issues,” he said.
“There is a lot of discussion, but nothing that we cannot or do not know how to overcome.”
The Minister also praised the approval of the Tax Reform, saying that it was “the most profound Tax Reform we have ever had in normal times.”
“It is a sign of dialogue and vitality of the political system. We have this resilience, ability to overcome and this vocation to overcome challenges.”
Pedro Arbex
Tags: Legal security Brazil room improvement
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