The Provisional Acts are the Same That Executive Decrees?

Abstract

The Medida Provisória (Provisional Act) hasbeen interpreted in light of the same authoritarian paradigmunder which is founded the Executive Decree that is presentin the constitutions of 1937 and 1967-69. This paper criticizesthe concept of a centralizing legislative procedure thatcomes from the idea of a supposed governmental instabilitybrought by the 1988 Constitution. It seeks to demonstratethat the original text of article 62 of the Constitution containedall requirements necessary to prevent the concentrationof the legislative procedure in the hands of the Executivebranch and that the Constitutional Amendment number 32has finally solidified the expansion of the law-making powerof chief of the Executive, thus exacerbating the problem thatit intended to solve. And, finally, this paper maintains that anew constitutional amendment designed to change the legalregime of the provisional acts and to refrain the Executivebranch from abusing its participation in the law-makingprocess, as we have proposed, will be, such as occurred withthe Constitutional Amendment 32, a innocuous measure aslong as the Provisional Measures continue to be interpretedon a manner which is incompatible with democratic principlesestablished in the Constitution of 1988.