Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil 1988

Constitutional Process in Brazil

CONSTITUIÇÃO DA REPÚBLICA FEDERATIVA DO BRASIL DE 1988
Incluindo reformas de 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996

PREAMBLE

We the representatives of the Brazilian People, convened in the National Constituent Assembly to institute a democratic state for the purpose of ensuring the exercise of social and individual rights, liberty, security, well-being, development, equality and justice as supreme values of a fraternal, pluralist and unprejudiced society, founded on social harmony and committed, in the internal and international orders, to the peaceful settlement of disputes, promulgate, under the protection of God, this CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL.

TITLE I. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

Article 1. The Federative Republic of Brazil, formed by the indissoluble union of the
states and municipalities and of the Federal District, is a legal democratic state and is
founded on:
1. sovereignty;
2. citizenship;
3. the dignity of the human person;
4. the social values of labour and of the free enterprise;
5. political pluralism.
Sole paragraph – All power emanates from the people, who exercise it by means of
elected representatives or directly, as provided by this Constitution.
Article 2. The Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial, independent and harmonious
among themselves, are the powers of the Union.
Article 3. The fundamental objectives of the Federative Republic of Brazil are:
1. to build a free, just and solidary society;
2. to guarantee national development;
3. to eradicate poverty and substandard living conditions and to reduce social and
regional inequalities;
4. to promote the well-being of all, without prejudice as to origin, race, sex, colour, age
and any other forms of discrimination.
Article 4. The international relations of the Federative Republic of Brazil are governed by
the following principles:
1. national independence;
2. prevalence of human rights;
3. self-determination of the peoples;
4. non-intervention;
5. equality among the states;
6. defense of peace;
7. peaceful settlement of conflicts;
8. repudiation of terrorism and racism;
9. cooperation among peoples for the progress of mankind;
10. granting of political asylum.
Sole paragraph – The Federative Republic of Brazil shall seek the economic, political,
social and cultural integration of the peoples of Latin America, viewing the formation of
a Latin-American community of nations.

TITLE II – FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND GUARANTEES

CHAPTER I – INDIVIDUAL AND
COLLECTIVE RIGHTS AND DUTIES
Article 5. All persons are equal before the law, without any distinction whatsoever,
Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country being ensured of inviolability of the
right to life, to liberty, to equality, to security and to property, on the following terms:
1. men and women have equal rights and duties under the terms of this Constitution;
2. no one shall be obliged to do or refrain from doing something except by virtue of
law;
3. no one shall be submitted to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment;
4. the expression of thought is free, and anonymity is forbidden;
5. the right of reply is ensured, in proportion to the offense, as well as compensation for
property or moral damages or for damages to the image;
6. freedom of conscience and of belief is inviolable, the free exercise of religious cults
being ensured and, under the terms of the law, the protection of places of worship and
their rites being guaranteed;
7. under the terms of the law, the rendering of religious assistance in civil and military
establishments of collective confinement is ensured;
8. no one shall be deprived of any rights by reason of religious belief or philosophical
or political conviction, unless he invokes it to exempt himself from a legal obligation
required of all and refuses to perform an alternative obligation established by law;
9. the expression of intellectual, artistic, scientific, and communications activities is
free, independently of censorship or license;
10. the privacy, private life, honour and image of persons are inviolable, and the right to
compensation for property or moral damages resulting from their violation is ensured;
11. the home is the inviolable refuge of the individual, and no one may enter therein
without the consent of the dweller, except in the event of flagrante delicto or disaster, or
to give help, or, during the day, by court order;
12. the secrecy of correspondence and of telegraphic, data and telephone
communications is inviolable, except, in the latter case, by court order, in the cases and in
the manner prescribed by law for the purposes of criminal investigation or criminal
procedural finding of facts;
13. the practice of any work, trade or profession is free, observing the professional
qualifications which the law shall establish;
14. access to information is ensured to everyone and the confidentiality of the source
shall be safeguarded, whenever necessary to the professional activity;
15. locomotion within the national territory is free in time of peace, and any person may,
under the terms of the law, enter it, remain therein or leave it with his assets;
16. all persons may hold peaceful meetings, without weapons, in places open to the
public, regardless of authorization provided that they do not frustrate another meeting
previously called for the same place, subject only to prior notice to the competent
authority;
17. freedom of association for lawful purposes is fully guaranteed, any paramilitary
association being forbidden;
18. the creation of associations and, under the terms of the law, that of cooperatives is
not subject to authorization, and State interference in their operation is forbidden;
19. associations may only be compulsorily dissolved or have their activities suspended
by a judicial decision, and a final and unappealable decision is required in the first case;
20. no one shall be compelled to become associated or to remain associated;
21. when expressly authorized, associations shall have the legitimacy to represent their
members either judicially or extrajudicially:
22. the right of property is guaranteed;
23. property shall observe its social function;
24. the law shall establish the procedure for expropriation for public necessity or use, or
for social interest, with fair and previous pecuniary compensation, except for the cases
provided in this Constitution;
25. in case of imminent public danger, the competent authority may make use of private
property, provided that, in case of damage, subsequent compensation is ensured to the
owner;
26. the small rural property, as defined by law, provided that it is exploited by the
family, shall not be subject to attachment for the payment of debts incurred by reason of
its productive activities, and the law shall establish the means to finance its development;
27. the exclusive right of use, publication or reproduction of works rests upon their
authors and is transmissible to their heirs for the time the law shall establish;
28. under the terms of the law, the following are ensured:
1. protection of individual participation in collective works and of reproduction of
the human image and voice, sports activities included;
2. the right to authors, interpreters and respective unions and associations to
monitor the economic exploitation of the works which they create or in which they
participate;
29. the law shall ensure the authors of industrial inventions of a temporary privilege for
their use, as well as protection of industrial creations, property of trademarks, names of
companies and other distinctive signs, viewing the social interest and the technological
and economic development of the country;
30. the right to inheritance is guaranteed;
31. succession to the estate of foreigners which is located in Brazil shall be regulated by
the Brazilian law in favour of the Brazilian spouse or children, whenever the personal law
of the deceased is not more favourable to them;
32. the State shall provide, as set forth by law, for the defense of consumers;
33. all persons have the right to receive, from the public agencies, information of private
interest to such persons, or of collective or general interest, which shall be provided
within the period established by law, subject to liability, except for the information whose
secrecy is essential to the security of society and of the State:
34. the following are ensured to everyone without any payment of fees
1. the right to petition the Government in defense of rights or against illegal acts or
abuse of power;
2. the obtaining of certificates from government offices, for the defense of rights
and clarification of situations of personal interest;
35. the law shall not exclude any injury or threat to a right from the consideration of the
Judicial Power;
36. the law shall not injure the vested right, the perfect juridical act and the res judicata:
37. there shall be no exceptional tribunal or court:
38. the institution of the jury is recognized, according to the organization which the
law shall establish, and the following are ensured:
1. full defense;
2. secrecy of voting;
3. sovereignty of verdicts;
4. power to judge willfill crimes against life;
39. there is no crime without a previous law to define it, nor a punishment without a
previous legal commination;
40. penal law shall not be retroactive, except to benefit the defendant;
41. the law shall punish any discrimination which may attempt against fundamental
rights and liberties;
42. the practice of racism is a non-bailable crime, with no limitation, subject to the
penalty of confinement, under the terms of the law;
43. the practice of torture, the illicit traffic of narcotics and related drugs, as well as
terrorism, and crimes defined as heinous crimes shall be considered by law as nonbailable
and not subject to grace or amnesty, and their principals, agents and those who
omit themselves while being able to avoid such crimes shall be held liable;
44. the action of armed groups, either civil or military, against the constitutional order
and the democratic state is a non-bailable crime, with no limitation;
45. no punishment shall go beyond the person of the convict, and the obligation to
compensate for the damage, as well as the decreeing of loss of assets may, under the
terms of the law, be extended to the successors and executed against them, up to the limit
of the value of the assets transferred;
46. the law shall regulate the individualization of punishment and shall adopt the
following, among others:
1. deprivation or restriction of freedom;
2. loss of assets;
3. fine;
4. alternative rendering of social service;
5. suspension or deprivation of rights;
47. there shall be no punishment:
1. of death, save in case of declared war under the terms of article 84, MX;
2. of life imprisonment;
3. of hard labour;
4. of banishment;
5. which is cruel;
48. the sentence shall be served in separate establishments, according to the nature of
the offense, the age and the sex of the convict;
49. prisoners are ensured of respect to their physical and moral integrity;
50. female prisoners shall be ensured of adequate conditions to stay with their children
during the nursing period;
51. no Brazilian shall be extradited, except the naturalized ones in the case of a common
crime committed before naturalization, or in the case there is sufficient evidence of
participation in the illicit traffic of narcotics and related drugs, under the terms of the law;
52. extradition of a foreigner on the basis of political or ideological crime shall not be
granted;
53. no one shall undergo legal proceeding or sentencing save by the competent
authority;
54. no one shall be deprived of freedom or of his assets without the due process of law;
55. litigants, in judicial or administrative processes, as well as defendants in general are
ensured of the adversary system and of full defense. with the means and resources
inherent to it;
56. evidence obtained through illicit means are unacceptable in the process;
57. no one shall be considered guilty before the issuing of a final and unappealable
penal sentence;
58. no one who has undergone civil identification shall be submitted to criminal
identification, save in the cases provided by law;
59. private prosecution in the cases of crimes subject to public prosecution shall be
admitted, whenever the latter is not filed within the period established by law;
60. the law may only restrict the publicity of procedural acts when the defense of
privacy or the social interest require it;
61. no one shall be arrested unless in flagrante delicto or by a written and justified order
of a competent judicial authority, save in the cases of military transgression or specific
military crime, as defined in law;
62. the arrest of any person as well as the place where he is being held shall be
immediately informed to the competent judge and to the family of the person arrested or
to the person indicated by him;
63. the arrested person shall be informed of his rights, among which the right to remain
silent, and he shall be ensured of assistance by his family and a lawyer;
64. the arrested person is entitled to identification of those responsible for his arrest or
for his police questioning;
65. illegal arrest shall be immediately remitted by the judicial authority;
66. no one shall be taken to prison or held therein, when the law admits release on own
recognizance, subject or not to bail;
67. there shall be no civil imprisonment for indebtedness except in the case of a person
responsible for voluntary and inexcusable default of alimony obligation and in the case of
an unfaithful trustee;
68. habeas corpus shall be granted whenever a person suffers or is in danger of suffering
violence or coercion against his freedom of locomotion, on account of illegal actions or
abuse of power;
69. a writ of mandamus shall be issued to protect a clear and perfect right, not covered
by habeas corpus or habeas data, whenever the party responsible for the illegal actions or
abuse of power is a public official or an agent of a corporate legal entity exercising duties
of the Government;
70. a collective writ of mandamus may be filed by:
1. a political party represented in the National Congress;
2. a union, a professional association or an association legally constituted and in
operation for at least one year, to defend the interests of its members or associates;
71. a writ of injunction shall be granted whenever the absence of a regulatory provision
disables the exercise of constitutional rights and liberties, as well as the prerogatives
inherent to nationality, sovereignty and citizenship;
72. habeas data shall be granted:
1. to ensure the knowledge of information related to the person of the petitioner,
contained in records or databanks of government agencies or of agencies of a public
character;
2. for the correction of data, when the petitioner does not prefer to do so through a
confidential process, either judicial or administrative;
73. any citizen is a legitimate party to file a people’s legal action with a view to
nullifying an act injurious to the public property or to the property of an entity in which
the State participates, to the administrative morality, to the environment and to the
historic and cultural heritage, and the author shall, save in the case of proven bad faith, be
exempt from judicial costs and from the burden of defeat;
74. the State shall provide full and free-of-charge legal assistance to all who prove
insufficiency of funds;
75. the State shall compensate a convict for judicial error, as well as a person who
remains imprisoned for a period longer than the one established by the sentence;
76. for all who are acknowledgedly poor, the following is free of charge, under the
terms of the law:
1. civil birth certificate;
2. death certificate;
77. habeas corpus and habeas data proceedings and, under the terms of the law, the acts
necessary to the exercise of citizenship are free of charge;
Paragraph 1. The rights and guarantees expressed in this Constitution do not exclude
others deriving from the regime and from the principles adopted by it, or from the
international treaties in which the Federative Republic of Brazil is a party.

CHAPTER II – SOCIAL RIGHTS
Article 6. Education, health, work, leisure, security, social security, protection of
motherhood and childhood, and assistance to the destitute, are social rights, as set forth
by this Constitution.
Article 7. The following are rights of urban and rural workers, among others that aim to
improve their social conditions:
1. employment protected against arbitrary dismissal or against dismissal without just
cause, in accordance with a supplementary law which shall establish severance-pay,
among other rights;
2. unemployment insurance, in the event of involuntary unemployment;
3. severance-pay fund;
4. nationally unified minimum wage, established by law, capable of satisfying their
basic living needs and those of their families with housing, food, education, health,
leisure, clothing, hygiene, transportation and social security, with periodical adjustments
to maintain its purchasing power, it being forbidden to use it as an index for any purpose;
5. a salary floor in proportion to the extent and complexity of the work;
6. irreducibility of the wages, except when established in collective agreement or
covenant;
7. guarantee of wages never below the minimum one, for those receiving variable pay;
8. year-end one-salary bonus based on the full pay or on the amount of the pension;
9. payrate for night-shift work higher than that for daytime work;
10. wage protection, as provided by law, with felonious withholding c. wages being a
crime;
11. participation in the profits or results, independent of wages, and, exceptionally,
participation in the management of the company, defined by law;
12. family allowance for their dependents;
13. normal working hours not exceeding eight hours per day a forty-four hours per
week, with the option of compensating working hours a reducing the length of the
workday through an agreement or a collection bargaining covenant;
14. a workday of six hours for work carried out in continuous s} unless otherwise
established by collective bargaining;
15. paid weekly leave, preferably on Sundays;
16. rate of pay for overtime at least fifty per cent higher than that of normal work;
17. annual vacation with remuneration at least one third higher than the normal salary;
18. maternity leave without loss of job and of salary, for a period of one hundred and
twenty days;
19. paternity leave, under the terms established by law;
20. protection of the labour market for women through specific incentives, as provided
by law;
21. advance notice of dismissal in proportion to the length of service of at least thirty
days, as provided by law;
22. reduction of employment related risks by means of health, hygiene and safety rules;
23. additional remuneration for strenuous, unhealthy or dangerous work, as established
by law;
24. retirement pension;
25. free assistance for children and dependents from birth to six years of age, in daycare
centres and pre-school facilities;
26. recognition of collective bargaining agreements and covenants;
27. protection on account of automation, as established by law;
28. occupational accident insurance, to be paid for by the employer, without excluding
the employer’s liability for indemnity in the event of malice or fault;
29. legal action with respect to credits arising from employment relationships with a
limitation of:
1. five years for urban workers, up to the limit of two years after the end of the
employment contract;
2. up to two years after the end of the contract for rural workers;
30. prohibition of any difference in wages, in the performance of duties and in hiring
criteria by reason of sex, age, colour or marital status;
31. prohibition of any discrimination with respect to wages and hiring criteria of
handicapped workers;
32. prohibition of any distinction between manual, technical and intellectual work or
among the respective professionals;
33. prohibition of night, dangerous or unhealthy work for minors under eighteen years
of age, and of any work for minors under fourteen years of age, except as an apprentice;
34. equal rights for workers with a permanent employment bond and for sporadic
workers.
Sole paragraph – The category of domestic servants is ensured of the rights set forth
in items IV, VI, VIII, XV, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XXI and XXIV, as well as of integration in
the social security system.
Article 8. Professional or union association is free, with regard for the following:
1. the law may not require authorization of the State for a union to be founded, except
for authorization for registration with the competent agency. it being forbidden to the
Government the interference and the intervention in the union;
2. it is forbidden to create more than one union, at any level representing a professional
or economic category, in the same territorial base, which shall be defined by the workers
or employers concerned, which base may not cover less than the area of one
municipality;
3. it falls to the union to defend the collective or individual rights and interests of the
category, including legal or administrative disputes;
4. the general assembly shall establish the contribution which, in the case of a
professional category, shall be discounted from the payroll, to support the confederative
system of the respective union representation, regardless of the-contribution set forth by
law;
5. no one shall be required to join or to remain a member of a union;
6. the collective labor bargainings must be held with the participation of unions;
7. retired members shall be entitled to vote and be voted on in unions;
8. the dismissal of a unionised employee is forbidden from the moment of the
registration of his candidacy to a position of union direction or representation and, if
elected, even if as a substitute, up to one year after the end of his term in office, unless he
commits a serious fault as established by law
Sole paragraph – The provisions of this article apply to the organization of rural unions
and those of fishing communities, with due regard for the conditions established by law.
Article 9. The right to strike is guaranteed, it being the competence of workers to decide
on the advisability of exercising it and on the interests to defended thereby.
Paragraph 1. The law shall define the essential services or activities shall provide with
respect to the satisfaction of the community’s undelayable needs.
Paragraph 2. The abuses committed shall subject those responsible to penalties of the
law.
Article 10. The participation of workers and employers is ensured in collegiate bodies of
government agencies in which their professional or so security interests are subject of
discussion and resolution.
Article 11. It is ensured, in companies with more than 200 employees, I election of a
representative of the employees for the exclusive purpose furthering direct negotiations
with the employers.

CHAPTER III – NATIONALITY
Article 12. The following are Brazilians:
1. by birth:
1. those born in the Federative Republic of Brazil, even if of foreign parents,
provided that they are not at the service of their country;
2. those born abroad, of a Brazilian father or a Brazilian mother, provided that
either of them is at the service of the Federative Republic of Brazil:
3. those born abroad, of a Brazilian father or a Brazilian mother, provided that they
come to reside in the Federative Republic of Brazil and opt for the Brazilian nationality at any time;
2. naturalized:
1. those who, as set forth by law, acquire Brazilian nationality, it being the only
requirement for persons originating from Portuguese-speaking countries the residence for one uninterrupted year and good moral repute;
2. foreigners of any nationality, resident in the Federative Republic of Brazil for
over fifteen uninterrupted years and without criminal conviction, provided that they apply for the Brazilian nationality.
Paragraph 1. The rights inherent to Brazilians shall be attributed to Portuguese citizens
with permanent residence in Brazil, if there is reciprocity in favour of Brazilians, except
in the cases stated in this Constitution.
Paragraph 2. The law may not establish any distinction between born and naturalized
Brazilians, except in the cases stated in this Constitution.
Paragraph 3. The following offices are exclusive for born Brazilians:
1. those of President and Vice-President of the Republic;
2. that of President of the Chamber of Deputies;
3. that of President of the Federal Senate;
4. that of Justice of the Supreme Federal Court;
5. those of the diplomatic career;
6. that of officer of the Armed Forces.
Paragraph 4. Loss of nationality shall be declared for a Brazilian who:
1. has his naturalization cancelled by court decision on account of an activity harmful to
the national interests;
2. acquires another nationality, save in the cases:
1. of recognition of the original nationality by the foreign law;
2. of imposition of naturalization, under the foreign rules, to the Brazilian resident
in a foreign State, as a condition for permanence in its territory, or for the exercise of
civil rights.
Article 13. Portuguese is the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil
Paragraph 1. The national flag, anthem, coat of arms and seal are the symbols of the
Federative Republic of Brazil.
Paragraph 2. The states, the Federal District and the municipalities may have symbols of
their own.

CHAPTER IV – POLITICAL RIGHTS
Article 14. The sovereignty of the people shall be exercised by universal suffrage and by
the direct and secret voting, with equal value for all, and, according to the law, by means
of:
1. plebiscite;
2. referendum;
3. people’s initiative.
Paragraph 1. Electoral enrollment and voting are:
1. mandatory for persons over eighteen years of age;
2. optional for:
1. the illiterate;
2. those over seventy years of age;
3. those over sixteen and under eighteen years of age.
Paragraph 2. Foreigners cannot register as voters and neither can conscripts during
their period of compulsory military service.
Paragraph 3. The conditions for eligibility, according to the law, are:
1. the Brazilian nationality;
2. the full exercise of the political rights;
3. the electoral enrollment;
4. the electoral domicile in the electoral district;
5. the membership in a political party;
6. the minimum age of:
1. thirty-five years for President and Vice-President of the Republic and
Senator;
2. thirty years for Governor and Vice-Governor of a state and of the Federal
District;
3. twenty-one years for Federal Deputy, State or District Deputy, Mayor, ViceMayor
and justice of the peace:
4. eighteen years for City Councilman.
Paragraph 4. The illiterate and those that cannot be registered as voters are not
eligible.
Paragraph 5. The President of the Republic, the State and Federal District Governors,
the Mayors and those who have succeeded or replaced them during their terms of office
may be reelected for only one subsequent term.
Paragraph 6. In order to run for other offices, the President of the Republic, the State
and Federal District Governors and the Mayors have to resign from their respective
offices at least six months in advance of the election.
Paragraph 7. The spouse and relatives by blood or marriage, up to the second degree
or by adoption, of the President of the Republic, of the Governor of a State or Territory or
of the Federal District, of a Mayor or of those who have replaced them within the six
months preceding the election, are not eligible in the jurisdiction of the incumbent, unless
they already hold an elective office and are candidates for re-election.
Paragraph 8. A member of the Armed Forces that can be registered as voter is eligible
if the following conditions are met:
1. if he has less than ten years of service, he shall have to take leave from military
activities;
2. if he has more than ten years of service, he shall be discharged of military duties
by his superiors and, if elected, he shall automatically pass into retirement upon the
issuing of the official certificate of electoral victory.
Paragraph 9. In order to protect the administrative probity, morality for the exercise
of the office, the previous life of the candidate being considered, and the normality and
legitimacy of the elections against the influence of the economic power or of the abuse in
the holding of office, position or job in the direct or indirect public administration, a
supplementary law shall establish other cases of ineligibility and the periods for such
ineligibilities to cease.
Paragraph 10. The exercise of an elective mandate may be impugned before the
Electoral Courts within a period of fifteen days after the date of the issuing of the of ficial
certificate of electoral victory, substantiating the suit with evidence of abuse of economic
power, corruption or fraud.
Paragraph 11. The procedure of the suit impugning the office shall be secret, and the
plaintiff shall be liable under the law if the suit is reckless or involves manifest bad faith.

• CA 16/97

Article 15. Disfranchisement of political rights is forbidden, the loss or suspension of
which rights shall apply only in the event of:
1. cancellation of naturalization by a final and unappealable judgement;
2. absolute civil incapacity
3. final and unappealable criminal sentence, for as long as its effects last;
4. refusal to comply with an obligation imposed upon everyone or render an
alternative service, according to article 5. VIII;
5. administrative dishonesty, according to article 37, paragraph 4.
Article 16. The law that alters the electoral procedure shall come into force the date of
its publication, and shall not apply to the elections that take place; within one year of it
being in force.

CHAPTER V – POLITICAL PARTIES
Article 17. The creation, amalgamation, merger and extinction of political parties is
free, with due regard for national sovereignty, the democratic regime, the plurality of
political parties, the fundamental rights of the individual, and observing the following
precepts:
1. national character;
2. prohibition from receiving financial assistance from a foreign entity or
government or from subordination to same:
3. rendering of accounts to the Electoral Courts;
4. operation in the National Congress in accordance with the law.
Paragraph 1. Political parties are ensured of autonomy to define their internal
structure, organization and operation, and their by-laws shall establish rules of party
loyalty and discipline.
Paragraph 2. After acquiring corporate legal status under civil law, political parties
shall register their by-laws at the Superior Electoral Court.
Paragraph 3. Political parties are entitled to monies from the party fund and to freeof-charge
access to radio and television, as established by law.
Paragraph 4. Political parties are forbidden to use paramilitary organizations.

TITLE III. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE

CHAPTER I. THE POLITICAL AND
ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
*Article 18. The political and administrative organization of the Federative Republic of
Brazil comprises the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, all of
them autonomous, as this Constitution provides.
Paragraph 1 – Brasília is the federal capital.
Paragraph 2 – The federal territories are part of the Union and their establishment,
transformation into states or reintegration into the state of origin shall be regulated by a
supplementary law.
Paragraph 3 – The states may merge into each other, subdivide or dismember to be
annexed to others or to form new states or federal territories, subject to the approval of
the population directly concerned, by means of a plebiscite, and of the National Congress,
by means of a supplementary law.
Paragraph 4 – The establishment, merger, fusion and dismemberment of municipalities
shall be effected through state law, within the period set forth by supplementary federal
law, and shall depend on prior consultation, by means of a plebiscite, of the population of
the municipalities concerned, after the publication of Municipal Feasibility Studies,
presented and published as set forth by law.
* CA 15/96
Article 19. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities are forbidden
to:
1. establish religious sects or churches, subsidize them, hinder their activities, or
maintain relationships of dependence or alliance with them or their representatives,
without prejudice to collaboration in the public interest in the manner set forth by law;
2. refuse to honour public documents;
3. create distinctions between Brazilians or preferences favouring some.

CHAPTER II – THE UNION
Article 20. The following are property of the Union:
1. the property which presently belongs to it as well as that which may be attributed to
it;
2. the unoccupied lands essential to the defense of the boundaries, the fortifications and
military constructions, the federal routes of communication and the preservation of the
environment, as defined by law;
3. the lakes, rivers and any watercourses in lands within its domain or that wash more
than one state, that serve as boundaries with other countries or that extend into foreign
territory or proceed therefrom, as well as bank lands and river beaches;
4. the river and lake islands in zones bordering with other countries, sea beaches, the
ocean and off-shore islands, with the exception of those referred to in article 26, II;
5. the natural resources of the continental shelf and of the exclusive economic zone;
6. the territorial sea;
7. tide lands and those added to them;
8. the hydraulic energy potentials;
9. the mineral resources, including those of the subsoil;
10. the natural underground cavities and the archaeological and historic sites;
11. those lands traditionally occupied by the Indians.
Paragraph 1 – In accordance with the law, the participation in the results of the
exploitation of petroleum or natural gas, hydric resources for the purpose of generation of
electric power and other mineral resources in the respective territory, continental shelf,
territorial sea or exclusive economic zone, financial compensation for the exploitation
thereof, is assured to the states Federal District and the municipalities, as well as to
agencies of the administration of the Union.
Paragraph 2 – The strip of land up to a hundred and fifty kilometers in width alongside
the terrestrial boundaries, designated as boundary zone, considered essential to the
defense of the national territory and its occupation and utilization shall be regulated by
law.
*Article 21. The Union shall have the power to:
1. maintain relations with foreign states and participate in international organizations;
2. declare war and make peace;
3. ensure national defense;
4. allow foreign forces, in the cases provided for in a supplementary law, to pass
through the national territory or to remain therein temporarily;
5. declare a state of siege, a state of defense and federal intervention;
6. authorize and control the production and trade of military materiel;
7. issue currency;
8. manage the foreign exchange reserves of the country and control financial
operations, especially those of credit, exchange and capitalization, as well as insurance
and private security;
9. prepare and carry out national and regional plans for the ordaining of the territory
and for economic and social development;
10. maintain the postal service and the national air mail;
11. operate, directly or through authorization, concession or permission, the
telecommunications services, as set forth by law, which law shall provide for the
organization of the services, the establishment of a regulatory agency and other
institutional issues;
12. operate, directly or through authorization, concession or permission:
1. the services of sound broadcasting and of sound and image broadcasting;
2. the electric power services and facilities and the energetic exploitation of
watercourses, jointly with the states wherein those hydro-energetic potentials are located;
3. air and aerospace navigation and airport infrastructure;
4. railway and waterway services between seaports and national borders or which
cross the boundary of a state or territory:
5. interstate and international highway passenger transportation services;
6. sea, river and lake ports;
13. organize and maintain the Judicial Power, the Public Prosecution and the Public
Legal Defense of the Federal District and territories;
14. organize and maintain the federal police, the federal highway and railway polices as
well as the civil police, the military police, the military fire brigade of the Federal District
and territories;
15. organize and maintain the official services of statistics, geography, geology and
cartography of national scope;
16. classify, for indicative purposes, public entertainment and and television programs;
17. grant amnesty;
18. plan and promote permanent defense against public disasters especially droughts and
floods;
19. establish a national system for the management of hydric resources and define
criteria for the concession of the right to their use;
20. establish directives for urban development, including housing, basic sanitation and
urban transportation;
21. establish principles and directives for the national transportation system;
22. perform the services of maritime, air, and border police;
23. operate nuclear energy services and facilities of any nature, exercise state monopoly
over research, mining, enrichment and reprocessing, industrialization and trade in nuclear
ores and their by-products, taking into account the following principles and conditions:
1. all nuclear activity within the national territory shall only be admitted for
peaceful purposes and subject to approval by the National Congress;
2. under a concession or permission, authorization is given for the of radioisotopes
in research and for medical, agricultural and industrial use as well as for other analogous
activities;
3. civil liability for nuclear damages does not depend on the existence of fault;
24. organize, maintain and carry out inspection of working conditions;
25. establish the areas and conditions for the exercise of placer mining activities in
associative form.

• CA 8/95.
  Article 22. The Union has the exclusive power to legislate on:

1. civil, commercial, criminal, procedural, electoral, agrarian, maritime, aeronautical,
   space and labour law;
2. expropriation;
3. civil and military requisitioning, in case of imminent danger or in times of war;
4. waters, energy, informatics, telecommunications and radio broadcasting;
5. the postal service;
6. the monetary and measures systems, metal certificates and guarantees;
7. policies for credit, foreign exchange, insurance and transfer of values;
8. foreign and interstate trade;
9. guidelines for the national transportation policy;
10. the regime of the ports and lake, river, ocean, air and aerospace navigation;
11. traffic and transportation;
12. beds of ore, mines, other mineral resources and metallurgy;
13. nationality, citizenship and naturalization;
14. Indian populations;
15. emigration, immigration, entry, extradition and expulsion of foreigners;
16. the organization of the national employment system and conditions for the practice
    of professions;
17. the judicial organization of the Public Prosecution and of the Public Legal Defense
    of the Federal District and of the territories, as well as their administrative organization;
18. the national statistical, cartographic and geological systems;
19. systems of savings, as well as of obtaining and guaranteeing popular savings;
20. consortium and lottery systems;
21. general organization rules, troops, material guarantees, drafting and mobilization of
    the military police and military fire brigades;
22. the jurisdiction of the federal police and of the federal highway- and military
    polices:
23. social security;
24. directives and bases of the national education;
25. public registers;
26. nuclear activities of any nature;
27. general rules for all types of bidding and contracting, for the direct and indirect
    public administration, including foundations instituted and maintained by the
    Government, in its various spheres, and companies under government control;
28. territorial defense, aerospace defense, maritime defense, civil defense, and national
    mobilization;
29. commercial advertising.
    Sole paragraph – A supplementary law may authorize the states to legislate upon specific
    questions related to the matters listed in this article.
    Article 23. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, in common,
    have the power:
30. to ensure that the Constitution, the laws and the democratic institutions are respected
    and that public property is preserved;
31. to provide for health and public assistance, for the protection and safeguard of
    handicapped persons;
32. to protect the documents, works and other assets of historical, artistic or cultural
    value, the monuments, the remarkable landscapes and the archaeological sites;
33. to prevent works of art and other assets of historical, artistic and cultural value from
    being taken out of the country, destroyed or from being deprived of their original
    characteristics;
34. to provide the means of access to culture, education and science;
35. to protect the environment and to fight pollution in any of its forms;
36. to preserve the forests, fauna and flora;
37. to promote agriculture and cattle breeding and organize the supply of foodstuff;
38. to promote housing construction programs and the improvement of housing and basic
    sanitation conditions;
39. to fight the causes of poverty and the factors leading to substandard living
    conditions, promoting the social integration of the unprivileged sectors of the population;
40. to register, monitor and control the concessions of rights to research and exploit
    hydric and mineral resources within their territories;
41. lo establish and to implement an educational policy for traffic safety.
    Sole paragraph – A supplementary law shall establish rules for the cooperation between
    the Union and the states, the Federal District and the municipalities aiming at the
    attainment of balanced development and well- being on a nationwide scope.
    Article 24. The Union, the states and the Federal District have the power to legislate
    concurrently on:
42. tax, financial, penitentiary, economic and urbanistic law;
43. budget;
44. trade boards
45. costs of forensic services;
46. production and consumption;
47. forests, hunting, fishing, fauna, preservation of nature, defense of the soil and natural
    resources, protection of the environment and control of pollution;
48. protection of the historic, cultural and artistic heritage, as well as of assets of touristic
    interest and landscapes of outstanding beauty;
49. liability for damages to the environment, to consumers, to assets and rights of
    artistic, aesthetic, historical, and touristic value, as well as to remarkable landscapes;
50. education, culture, teaching and sports;
51. establishment, operation and procedures of small claims courts;\
52. judicial procedures;
53. social security, protection and defense of health;
54. legal assistance and public defense;
55. protection and social integration of handicapped persons;
56. protection of childhood and youth;
57. organization, guarantees, rights and duties of the civil policies.
    Paragraph 1 – Within the scope of concurrent legislation, the competence of the Union
    shall be limited to the establishment of general rules.
    Paragraph 2 – The competence of the Union to legislate upon general rules does not
    exclude the supplementary competence of the states
    Paragraph 3 – If there is no federal law or general rules, the states shall exercise full
    legislative competence to provide for their peculiarities.
    Paragraph 4 – The supervenience of a federal law over general rules suspends the
    effectiveness of a state law to the extent that the two are contrary
    CHAPTER IV – THE FEDERATED
    STATES
    *Article 25. The states are organized and governed by the Constitutions and laws they
    may adopt, in accordance with the principles of this Constitution.
    Paragraph 1 – All powers that this Constitution does not prohibit the states from
    exercising shall be conferred upon them.
    Paragraph 2 – The states shall have the power to operate, directly or by means of
    concession, the local services of piped gas, as provided for by law, it being forbidden to
    issue any provisional measure for its regulation.
    Paragraph 3 – The states may by means of a supplementary law, establish metropolitan
    regions, urban agglomerations and micro-regions, formed by the grouping of adjacent
    municipalities, in order to integrate the organization, the planning and the operation of
    public functions of common interest.

• CA 5/95
  Article 26. The property of the states includes:

1. surface or subterranean waters, flowing, emerging or in deposit, with the exception,
   in this case, of those resulting from work carried out by the Union, as provided by law:
2. the areas, on ocean and coastal islands, which are within their domain, excluding
   those under the domain of the Union, the municipalities or third parties;
3. the river and lake islands which do not belong to the Union;
4. the unoccupied lands not included among those belonging to the Union.
   Article 27. The number of Deputies in the Legislative Assembly shall correspond to three
   times the representation of the state in the Chamber of Deputies and, when the number of
   thirty-six has been reached, it shall be increased by as many members as the number of
   Federal Deputies exceeding twelve.
   Paragraph 1 – The term of office of the State Deputies shall be four years and the
   provisions of this Constitution shall be applied to them in what refers to the electoral
   system, inviolability, immunities, remuneration, loss of office. leave of absence,
   impediments and incorporation into the Armed Forces.
   Paragraph 2 – The remuneration of the State Deputies shall be established in each
   legislative term, for the subsequent one, by the Legislative Assembly. as provided by
   articles 150, II, 153, III, and 153, paragraph 2, I, in the proportion of seventy-five
   percent, at most, of the remuneration established, in legal tender. for the Federal
   Deputies.
   Paragraph 3 – The Legislative Assemblies shall have the power to provide upon their
   internal regulations, police and the administrative services of their Secretariat and to fill
   in the respective offices.
   *Article 28. The election of the Governor and the Vice-Governor of a state, for a term of
   office of four years, shall be held on the first Sunday of October, in the first round, and
   on the last Sunday of October, in the second round, as the case may be, of the year
   preceding the one in which the term of office of their predecessors ends, and they shall
   take office on January l of the following year, in accordance, otherwise, with the
   provisions of article 77.

• CA 16/97
  Sole paragraph – The Governor who takes another post or function in the direct or
  indirect public administration shall lose his office, with the exception of the taking of
  office by virtue of public entrance examination and taking into account the provisions in
  article 38, I, IV and V.
  CHAPTER IV THE MUNICIPALITIES
  *Article 29. Municipalities shall be governed by organic law, voted in two readings, with
  a minimum interval of ten days between the readings, and approved by two-thirds of the
  members of the Municipal Chamber, which shall promulgate it, observing the principles
  established in this Constitution, in the Constitution of the respective state and the
  following precepts:

1. election of the Mayor, Vice-Mayor and Councilmen for a term of office of four
   years, by means of direct election held simultaneously throughout the country;
2. election of the Mayor and Vice-Mayor on the first Sunday of October of the year
   preceding the end of the term of office of those they are to succeed, subject, in the case of
   municipalities with over two hundred thousand voters, to the provisions set forth in
   article 77;
3. investiture of the Mayor and Vice-Mayor on January l of the year subsequent to the
   year of the election;
4. number of councilmen in proportion to the population of the municipalities, in
   accordance with the following limits:
5. a minimum of nine and a maximum of twenty-one in municipalities with up to
   one million inhabitants;
6. a minimum of thirty-three and a maximum of forty-one in municipalities with
   over one million and under five million inhabitants;
7. a minimum of forty-two and a maximum of fifty-five in municipalities with over
   five million inhabitants;
8. the remuneration of the Mayor, the Vice-Mayor and the Councilmen stipulated by
   the Municipal Chamber in each legislature for the subsequent one, in accordance with the
   provisions set forth in articles 37, XI, 150, II, 153, III, and 153, paragraph 2, I;
9. the remuneration of the City Councilmen shall correspond at the most, to seventyfive
   percent of the remuneration established, in legal tender, for the State Deputies,
   except for the provisions of article 37, XI;
10. the total expenditure with the remuneration of the City Councilmen may not exceed
    the amount of five percent of the revenue of the Municipality;
11. inviolability of the Councilmen on account of their opinions, words and votes while
    in office and within the jurisdiction of the municipality;
12. prohibitions and incompatibilities, while in the exercise of the office of City
    Councilman, similar, where applicable, to the provisions of this Constitution for the
    members of the National Congress and of the Constitution of the respective state for the
    members of the Legislative Assembly;
13. trial of the Mayor before the Court of Justice;
14. organization of the legislative and supervisory functions of the Municipal Chamber;
15. cooperation of the representative associations in municipal planning;
16. public initiative in the presenting of bills of specific interest to the municipality, the
    city or the neighborhoods, by means of the manifestation of at least five percent of the
    electorate;
17. loss of the office of mayor, as provided in article 28, sole paragraph.

• CA 1/92 and 16/97
  Article 30. The municipalities have the power to:

1. legislate upon matters of local interest;
2. supplement federal and state legislations where pertinent;
3. institute and collect taxes within their jurisdiction, as well as to apply their revenues,
   without prejudice to the obligation of rendering accounts and publishing balance sheets
   within the Periods established bv law:
4. create, organize and suppress districts, with due regard for the state legislation;
5. organize and render, directly or by concession or permission, the public services of
   local interest, including mass-transportation, which is of essential nature;
6. maintain, with the technical and financial cooperation of the Union and the state,
   programs of pre-school and elementary school education;
7. provide, with the technical and financial cooperation of the Union and the state,
   health services to the population;
8. promote, wherever pertinent, adequate territorial ordaining, by means of planning
   and control of use, apportionment and occupation of the urban soil;
9. promote the protection of the local historic and cultural heritage, with due regard for
   federal and state legislation and supervision.
   Article 31. Supervision of the municipality shall be exercised by the municipal
   legislature, through outside control, and by the internal control systems of the municipal
   executive branch, in the manner called for by law.
   Paragraph l – Outside control of the Municipal Chamber shall be exercised with the
   assistance of the state or municipal Court of Accounts, or of the Municipal Councils or
   Courts of Accounts, where they exist.
   Paragraph 2 – The prior report, issued by the competent agency, on the accounts to be
   rendered annually by the Mayor, shall not prevail only by a decision of two-thirds of the
   members of the City Council.
   Paragraph 3 – The accounts of the municipalities shall remain, for sixty days annually, at
   the disposal, for examination and consideration, of anT taxpayer, who may question their
   legitimacy, as the law provides.
   Paragraph 4 – The creation of municipal courts, councils or agencies of accounts is
   forbidden.
   CHAPTER V – THE FEDERAL
   DISTRICT AND THE TERRITORIES
   SECTION I – THE FEDERAL DISTRICT
   Article 32. The Federal District, which may not be divided into municipalities shall be
   governed by an organic law, voted in two readings, with a minimum interval of ten days,
   and approved by two-thirds of the Legislative Chamber, which shall enact it, in
   accordance with the principles set forth in this Constitution.
   Paragraph l – The legislative powers reserved to the states and municipalities are
   attributed to the Federal District.
   Paragraph 2 – The election of the Governor and the Vice-Governor, complying with the
   rules of article 77, and of the District Deputies shall coincide with that of the state
   Governors and Deputies, for a term of office of the same { rs n
   Paragraph 3 – The provisions of article 27 apply to the District Deputies and the
   Legislative Chamber.
   Paragraph 4 – A federal law shall provide for the use, by the Government of the Federal
   District, of the civil and military polices and the military fire brigade.
   SECTION lI – THE TERRITORIES
   Article 33. The law shall provide for the administrative and judicial organization of the
   territories.
   Paragraph 1 – The territories may be divided into municipalities, to which the provisions
   of Chapter IV of this Title shall be applied, insofar as pertinent.
   Paragraph 2 – The accounts of the Government of the territory shall be submitted to the
   National Congress, with the prior opinion of the Court of An counts af the Union.
   Paragraph 3 – In the federal territories with over a hundred thousand inhabitants, in
   addition to the Governor, appointed as set forth in this Constitution, there shall be judicial
   agencies of first and second instances, members of the Public Prosecution and Federal
   Public Legal Defenders; the law shall provide for the elections to the Territory Chamber
   and its decision- making powers.
   CHAPTER VI – INTERVENTION
   *Article 34. The Union shall not intervene in the states or in the Federal District, except:
10. to maintain national integrity;
11. to repel foreign invasion or that of one unit of the Federation into another;
12. to put an end to serious jeopardy to public order;
13. to guarantee the free exercise of any of the powers of the units of the Federation;
14. to reorganize the finances of a unit of the Federation that:
15. stops the payment of Its funded debt for more than two consecutive years, except
    for reasons of force majeure;
16. fails to deliver to the municipalities the tax revenues established in this
    Constitution, within the periods of time set forth by law;
17. to provide for the enforcement of federal law, judicial order or decision;
18. to ensure compliance with the following constitutional principles:
19. republican form, representative system and democratic regime;
20. rights of the human person;
21. municipal autonomy;
22. rendering of accounts of the direct and indirect public administration
23. the application of the mandatory minimum of the income resulting from state
    taxes, including those originating from transfers, to the maintenance and development of
    education.

*CA 14/96
Article 35. The state shall not intervene in its municipalities, neither the Union in the
municipalities located in a federal territory, except when:
1. the funded debt is not paid for two consecutive years, without reasons of force
majeure;
2. the due accounts are not rendered, in the manner prescribed by las
3. the minimum required amount of the municipal revenues has not been applied in the
maintenance and development of education;
4. the Court of Justice grants a petition to ensure observance of the principles indicated
in the state Constitution or to provide for the enforcement of the law, judicial order or
decision.
Article 36. The issuance of a decree of intervention shall depend:
1. on a request from the coerced or impeded Legislative or Executive Power, or on a
requisition from the Supreme Federal Court, if the coercion is exercised against the
Judicial Power, in the case of article 34, IV;
2. in case of disobedience to a judicial order or decision, on a requisition from the
Supreme Federal Court, the Superior Court of Justice or the Superior Electoral Court;
3. on the granting of a petition from the Attorney-General of the Republic by the
Supreme Federal Court, in the case of article 34, VII;
4. on the granting of a petition from the Attorney-General of the Republic by the
Superior Court of Justice, in the case of refusal to enforce a federal law.
Paragraph 1 – The decree of intervention, which shall specify the extent, the period and
the conditions of enforcement and which, if pertinent, shall appoint the intervenor, shall
be submitted to the National Congress or the State Legislative Assembly for
consideration, within twenty-four hours.
Paragraph 2 – If the National Congress or the Legislative Assembly are not in session, a
special session shall be called within the same twenty- four hours.
Paragraph 3 – In the case of article 34, VI and VII, or article 35, IV, when the
consideration by the National Congress or the Legislative Assembly may be waived, the
decree shall be limited to suspending the enforcement of the impugned act, if such
measure suffices to restore normality.
Paragraph 4 – Upon cessation of the reasons that caused the intervention, the authorities
removed from their offices shall return to them, unless there is some legal impediment.
CHAPTER VII PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
SECTION I – GENERAL PROVISIONS
*Article 37. The direct or indirect public administration of any of the powers of the
Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, as well as their foundations,
shall obey the principles of lawfulness, impersonality. morality, publicity and also the
following:
1. public offices, positions and functions are accessible to all Brazilians who meet the
requirements established by law;
2. investiture in a public office or position depends on previously passing an entrance
examination consisting of tests or tests and presentation of academic and professional
credentials, except for appointment to a commission office declared by law as being of
free appointment and discharge;
3. the period of validity of a public entrance examination shall be up to two years,
extendable once for a like period of time;
4. during the unextendable period established in the public call notice, a person who has
passed a public entrance examination of tests, or of tests and presentation of academic
and professional credentials, shall be called with priority over newly approved applicants,
to take an office or position in the career:
5. commission offices or positions of trust shall be exercised, preferentially, by civil
servants holding a post in a technical or professional career, in the cases and under the
conditions established in law;
6. the right to free union association is guaranteed to civil servants:
7. the right to strike shall be exercised in the manner and within the limits defined by a
supplementary law;
8. the law shall reserve a percentage of public offices and positions for handicapped
persons and shall define the criteria for their admittance
9. the law shall establish the cases of hiring for a limited period of time to meet a
temporary need of exceptional public interest;
10. the general review of the remuneration of Government employees without
distinction between the indices applied to civil and military servants, shall always occur
on the same date;
11. the law shall establish the maximum limit and the proportion between the highest
and the lowest remuneration of public servants, taking into account, as maximum limits
and within the sphere of the respective powers, the amounts received as remuneration, in
legal tender of any sort, by members of the National Congress, Ministers of State and
Justices of the Supreme Federal Court and the corresponding offices in the states, the
Federal District and the territories and, in the municipalities, the amount received as
remuneration, in legal tender, by the Mayor;
12. the salaries for positions of the Legislative and Judicial Powers may not be higher
than those paid by the Executive Power;
13. the linkage or equalization of salaries, for purposes of the remuneration of the
personnel in the public services, is forbidden, except for the provisions of the preceding
item and of article 39, paragraph 1;
14. the pecuniary raises received by a government employee shall not be computed or
accumulated for purposes of granting subsequent raises, for the same reason or on an
identical basis;
15. the salaries of government employees may not be reduced, and the remuneration
shall comply with the provisions of article 37, XI and XII, 150, II, 153, III, and paragraph
2, I;
16. remunerated accumulation of public offices is forbidden, except when there is
compatibility of working hours:
1. of two teaching positions;
2. of one teaching position with another technical or scientific position;
3. of two exclusively medical positions;
17. the prohibition to accumulate extends to positions and functions and includes
autonomous government agencies, public companies, mixed- capital companies and
foundations maintained by the Government;
18. the financial administration and its revenue officers shall, within their spheres of
authority and jurisdiction, have the right to precedence over the other administrative
sectors, as the law provides;
19. a public company, a mixed-capital company, an autonomous Government agency or
a public foundation may only be created by means of a specific law;
20. the creation of subsidiaries of the agencies mentioned in the preceding item depends
on legislative authorization, in each case, as well as the participation by any of them in a
private company;
21. with the exception of the cases specified in law, public works, services, purchases
and disposals shall be contracted by public bidding proceedings that ensure equal
conditions to all bidders, with clauses that establish payment obligations, maintaining the
effective conditions of the bid. as the law provides, which shall only allow the
requirements of technical and economic qualifications indispensable to guarantee the
fulfilling of the obligations.

• CA 18/98
  Paragraph 1 – The publicity of the acts, programmes, public works, services and
  campaigns of Government agencies shall be of educational, informative or social
  orientation character, and shall not contain names, symbols or images that characterize
  personal propaganda of Government authorities or employees.
  Paragraph 2 – Non-compliance with the provisions of items II and III shall result in the
  nullity of the act and punishment of the responsible authority, as the law provides.
  Paragraph 3 – Complaints relating to the rendering of public services shall be regulated by
  law.
  Paragraph 4 – Acts of administrative dishonesty shall result in the suspension of political
  rights, loss of public function, prohibition to transfer personal property and
  reimbursement to the Public Treasury, in the manner and grading established by law,
  without prejudice to the applicable criminal action.
  Paragraph 5 – The law shall establish the limitations for illicit acts, performed by any
  agent, whether or not a Government employee, which cause losses to the Public Treasury,
  without prejudice to the respective claims for reimbursement.
  Paragraph 6 – Public legal entities and private legal entities rendering public services
  shall be liable for damages that any of their agents, acting as such, cause to third parties,
  ensuring the right of recourse against the liable agent in cases of malice or fault.
  Article 38. The following provisions are applicable to civil servants holding an elective
  office:

1. in the case of a federal, state or district elective office, ne shall leave his office,
   position or function;
2. if vested with the office of Mayor, he shall take leave from his post, position or
   function and he may opt for the corresponding remuneration;
3. if vested with the office of City Councilman, if there is compatibility of working
   hours, he shall receive the benefits of his post, position or function, without prejudice to
   the remuneration of his elective office and in the case there is no such compatibility, the
   provisions of the preceding item shall be applied;
4. in any case requiring leave of absence for the exercise of an elective office, his time
   of service shall be counted in full, for all legal effects, except for promotion by merit;
5. for purposes of social security benefits, in the case of leave of absence, the amounts
   shall be established as if he were in activity.
   SECTION II – CIVIL SERVANTS
   Article 39. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall
   institute, within their jurisdiction, a sole juridical regime and career plans for the
   employees of the direct public administration, the autonomous Government agencies and
   the public foundations.
   Paragraph 1 – The law shall guarantee, to the direct administration employees, equal
   salaries for offices in the same Power with equal or similar duties or between employees
   of the Executive, Legislative or Judicial Powers, except for advantages of a personal
   nature and those corresponding to the type of work or the workplace.
   Paragraph 2 – The provisions of article 7, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII, XIII, XV, XVI,
   XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXII, XXIII and XXX shall apply to these employees.
   Article 40. A civil servant shall go into retirement:
6. for permanent disability, receiving full pension if such disability results from a work
   accident, professional disease or a serious, contagious or incurable illness, as specified by
   law, and proportional pension in all other cases:
7. compulsorily, at seventy years of age, with a pension proportional to the period of
   service;
8. voluntarily:
9. upon thirty-five years of service, if a man, and upon thirty years, if a woman,
   with full pay;
10. upon thirty years of effective exercise in teaching positions, if a man, and upon
    twenty-five years, if a woman, with full pay;
11. upon thirty years of service, if a man, and upon twenty-five years, if a woman,
    with pay in proportion to this period;
12. at sixty-five years of age, if a man, and at sixty, if a woman, with pay in
    proportion to the period of service.
13. Paragraph 1 – A supplementary law may establish exceptions to the provisions of item III,
    a and c, in the case of the exercise of activities considered strenuous, unhealthy or
    dangerous.
    Paragraph 2 – The law shall provide for retirement in temporary offices or positions.
    Paragraph 3 – The period of federal, state or municipal public service shall be calculated
    in full for purposes of retirement and placement on paid avai lability
    Paragraph 4 – The retirement pension shall be revised, in the same proportion and on the
    same date, whenever the remuneration of the servants in activity is changed, and any
    benefits or advantages subsequently granted to the servants in activity shall also be
    extended to the retired servants, including those resulting from the transformation or
    reclassification of the office or function from which they retired, as the law provides.
    Paragraph 5 – The benefit of pension for death shall correspond to the full salary or
    earnings of the deceased employee, up to the limit established in law, complying with the
    provisions of the preceding paragraph.
    Paragraph 6 – The retirement and pension benefits of the federal civil servants shall be
    financed by resources originating from the Union and from the contributions of the civil
    servants. under the terms of the law.
    Article 41. Servants employed by virtue of public entrance examinations acquire tenure
    after two years of actual service.
    Paragraph l – A tenured civil servant shall only lose his office by virtue of a final and
    unappealable judicial decision or by means of an administrative process, in which he is
    assured ample defense.
    Paragraph 2 – If the dismissal of a tenured civil servant is voided by a judicial decision,
    he shall be reinstated and the occupant of the vacancy shall be led back to his original
    office, with no right to indemnity, taken to another office or placed on paid availability.
    Paragraph 3 – If the office is declared extinct or unnecessary. a tenured civil servant shall
    remain on paid availability until he is adequately placed in another office.
    *SECTION III – THE MILITARY OF THE STATES, OF THE
    FEDERAL DISTRICT AND OF THE TERRITORIES
    **Article 42. The members of the Military Police and of the Military Fire Brigades,
    institutions whose organization is based on hierarchy and discipline, are military of the
    States, of the Federal District, and of the Territories.
    Paragraph 1. The provisions of article 14, paragraph 8; article 40, paragraph 3; and of
    article 142, paragraphs 2 and 3 apply to the military of the States, of the Federal District
    and of the Territories, in addition to other provisions that the law may establish, it being
    incumbent upon specific state legislation to provide for the matters of article 142,
    paragraph 3, item X, the ranks of the officers being awarded by the respective State
    Governors.
    Paragraph 2. The provisions of article 40, paragraphs 4 and 5 apply to military of the
    States, of the Federal District and of the Territories, and to their pensioners, and the
    provision of article 40, paragraph 6 applies to the military of the Federal District and the
    Territories.

• CA 18/98
  ** CA 3/93 and 18/98
  SECTION IV – THE REGIONS
  Article 43. For administrative purposes, the Union may co-ordinate its action in one same
  social and geo-economic complex, seeking to attain its development and to reduce
  regional inequalities.
  Paragraph 1 – A supplementary law shall provide for:

1. the conditions for the integration of developing regions;
2. the composition of the regional agencies which shall carry out, as provided by law,
   the regional plans included in the national social and economic development plans
   approved concurrently.
   Paragraph 2 – The regional incentives shall include, besides others, as prescribed by law:
3. equality of tariffs, freight rates, insurance and other cost and price items which are
   within the responsibility of the Government;
4. favoured interest rates for the financing of priority activities;
5. exemptions, reductions or temporary deferment of federal taxes owed by individuals
   or by legal entities;
6. priority in the economic and social use of rivers and dammed or dammable water
   masses in low-income regions subject to periodical droughts.
   Paragraph 3 – In the areas referred to in paragraph 2, IV, the Union shall grant incentives
   to the recovery of arid lands and shall cooperate with small and medium-size rural
   landowners in the implementing of water sources and small-scale irrigation in their tracts
   of land.

TITLE IV- THE ORGANIZATION OF THE POWERS

CHAPTER I – THE LEGISLATIVE.
POWER
SECTION I – THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Article 44. The Legislative Power is exercised by the National Congress, which is
composed of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate.
Sole paragraph – Each legislative term shall have the duration of four years. Article 45.
The Chamber of Deputies is composed of representatives of theca people, elected, by the
proportional system, in each state, territory and in the Federal District.
Paragraph 1 – The total number of Deputies, as well as the representation of the states and
of the Federal District shall be established by a supplementary law, in proportion to the
population, and the necessary adjustments shall be made in the year preceding the
elections, so that none of those units of the Federation has less than eight or more than
seventy Deputies.
Paragraph 2 – Each territory shall elect four Deputies.
Article 46. The Federal Senate is composed of representatives of the states and of the
Federal District, elected by a majority vote.
Paragraph 1 – Each state and the Federal District shall elect three Senators for a term of
office of eight years.
Paragraph 2 – One-third and two-thirds of the representation of each state and of the
Federal District shall be renewed every four years, alternately.
Paragraph 3 – Each Senator shall be elected with two substitutes.
Article 47. Except where there is a constitutional provision to the contrary, the decisions
of each House and of their committees shall be taken by a majority vote, when the
absolute majority of its members is present.
SECTION II – POWERS OF THE NATIONAL CONGRESS
Article 48. The National Congress shall have the power, with the sanction of the
President of the Republic, which shall not be required for the matters specified in articles
49, 51 and 52, to provide for all the matters within the competence of the Union and
especially on:
1. system of taxation, collection of taxes and income distribution;
2. pluriannual plan, budgetary directives, annual budget, credit transactions, public debt
and issuance of currency;
3. establishment and modification of Armed Forces troops;
4. national, regional and sectorial plans and programmes of development;
5. boundaries of the national territory, air and maritime space and property of the
Union;
6. incorporation, subdivision or dismemberment of areas of territories or states, after
consulting with the respective Legislative Assembly;
7. temporary transference of the seat of the Federal Government;
8. granting of amnesty;
9. administrative and judicial organization of the Public Prosecution and the Public
Legal Defense of the Union and of the territories, and judicial organization of the Public
Prosecution and the Public Legal Defense of the Federal District;
10. establishment, transformation and extinction of public offices, positions and
functions;
11. establishment, organization and duties of the Ministries and public administration
agencies;
12. telecommunications and radio broadcasting;
13. financial, foreign exchange and monetary matters, financial institutions and their
operations;
14. currency, currency issuance limits, and amount of federal indebtedness.
Article 49. It is exclusively the competence of the National Congress:
1. to decide conclusively on international treaties, agreements or a which result in
charges or commitments that go against the national property;
2. to authorize the President of the Republic to declare war, to make peace and to
permit foreign forces to pass through the national territory or remain therein temporarily,
with the exception of the cases provided by a supplementary law;
3. to authorize the President and the Vice-President of the Republic to leave the
country, when such absence exceeds fifteen days;
4. to approve a state of defense and federal intervention, authorize a state of siege or
suspend any of these measures;
5. to stop the normative acts of the Executive Power which exceed their regimental
authority or the limits of legislative delegation;
6. to transfer its seat temporarily;
7. to establish identical remuneration for Federal Deputies and Senators, in each
legislative term, for the subsequent one, taking into account the provisions of articles 150,
II, 153, III, and 153, paragraph 2, I;
8. to establish, for each fiscal year, the remuneration of the President and the VicePresident
of the Republic and of the Ministers of State, taking into account the provisions
of articles 150, II, 153, III, and 153, paragraph 2, I;
9. to examine each year the accounts rendered by the President of the Republic and to
consider the reports on the execution of Government plans;
10. to supervise and control directly or through either of its Houses, the acts of the
Executive Power, including those of the indirect administration;
11. to ensure the preservation of legislative competence in the face of the normative
incumbency of the other Powers;
12. to consider the acts of concession and renewal of concession of radio and television
stations;
13. to choose two-thirds of the members of the Court of Accounts of the Union;
14. to approve initiatives of the Executive Power referring to nuclear activities
15. to authorize a referendum and to call a plebiscite;
16. to authorize, in Indian lands, the exploitation and use of hydric resources and the
prospecting and mining of mineral resources
17. to give prior approval to the disposal or concession of public lands with an area of
over two thousand and five hundred hectares
Article 50. The Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, or any of their committees,
may summon a Minister of State or any chief officers of agencies directly subordinate to
the Presidency of the Republic to personally render information on a previously
determined matter, and absence without adequate justification shall constitute a crime of
malversation.
Paragraph 1 – The Ministers of State may attend the Federal Senate, the Chamber of
Deputies or any of their committees, on their own initiative and by agreement with the
respective Directing Board, to report on a matter of relevance to their Ministry
Paragraph 2 – The Directing Boards of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Federal
Senate may forward to the Ministers of State, or any of the persons mentioned in the
caption of this article, written requests for information, and refusal or non-compliance,
within a period of thirty days, as well as the rendering of false information. shall
constitute a crime of malversation.
SECTION III – THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
Article 51. It is exclusively the competence of the Chamber of Deputies:
1. to authorize, by two-thirds of its members, legal proceeding to be initiated against the
President and the Vice-President of the Republic and the Ministers of State;
2. to effect the taking of accounts of the President of the Republic, when they are not
presented to the National Congress within sixty days of the opening of the legislative
session;
3. to draw up its internal regulations;
4. to provide for its organization, functioning, police, creation, transformation or
extinction of offices, positions and functions of its services, and the establishment of their
respective remuneration, taking into account the guidelines set forth in the law of
budgetary directives;
5. to elect the members of the Council of the Republic, in the manner prescribed bv
article 89. VII.
SECTION IV – THE FEDERAL SENATE
Article 52. It is exclusively the competence of the Federal Senate:
1. to effect the legal proceeding and trial of the President and Vice-President of the
Republic for crime of malversation and the Ministers of State for crimes of the same
nature relating to those;
2. to effect the legal proceeding and trial of the Justices of the Supreme Federal Court,
the Attorney-General of the Republic and the Advocate-General of the Union for crimes
of malversation;
3. to give prior consent, by secret voting, after public hearing, on the selection of
1. judges, in the cases established in this Constitution;
2. Justices of the Court of Accounts of the Union appointed by the President of the
Republic;
3. Governor of a territory;
4. president and directors of the Central Bank;
5. Attorney-General of the Republic; v
6. holders of other offices, as the law may determine;
4. to give prior approval, by secret voting, after closed hearing, on the selection of
heads of permanent diplomatic missions:
5. to authorize foreign transactions of a financial nature, of the interest of the Union, the
states, the Federal District, the territories and the municipalities;
6. to establish, as proposed by the President of the Republic, total limits for the entire
amount of the consolidated debt of the Union, the states. the Federal District and the
municipalities;
7. to provide for the total limits and conditions for foreign and domestic credit
transactions of the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, of their
autonomous Government entities and other entities controlled by the Federal
Government;
8. to provide for limits and conditions for the concession of a guarantee by the Union in
foreign and domestic credit transactions;
9. to establish total limits and conditions for the entire amount of the debt of the states,
the Federal District and the municipalities;
10. to stop the application, in full or in part, of a law declared unconstitutional by final
decision of the Supreme Federal Court;
11. to approve, by absolute majority and by secret voting, the removal from office of the
Attorney-General of the Republic before the end of his term of office;
12. to draw up its internal regulations;
13. to provide for its organization, functioning, police, creation, transformation or
extinction of offices, positions or functions of its services and establishment of their
respective remuneration, taking into account the guidelines established in the law of
budgetary directives;
14. to elect the members of the Council of the Republic, as established in article 89, VII.
Sole paragraph – In the cases provided for in items I and II, the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Federal Court shall act as President and the sentence, which may only be issued
by two-thirds of the votes of the Federal Senate, shall be limited to the loss of office with
disqualification to hold any public office for a period of eight years, without prejudice to
other applicable judicial sanctions.
SECTION V – DEPUTIES AND SENATORS
Article 53. The Deputies and Senators enjoy inviolability on account of their opinions,
words and votes.
Paragraph 1 – From the date of the issuance of the certificate of electoral victory, the
members of the National Congress may not be arrested, except in flagrante delicto of an
umbailable crime, nor may they be criminally prosecuted, without prior authorization by
the respective House.
Paragraph 2 – Rejection of the demand for authorization or the absence of a decision shall
suspend the limitation for the duration of the term of office.
Paragraph 3 – In the event of flagrante delicto of an umbailable crime, the case records
shall be sent within twenty-four hours to the respective House which, by the secret vote
of the majority of its members, shall decide on the arrest and authorize or not the
indictment.
Paragraph 4 – The Deputies and Senators shall be tried by the Supreme Federal Court.
Paragraph 5 – The Deputies and Senators shall not have the obligation to render testimony
or information received or given by virtue of the exercise of their mandate, nor against
persons who rendered them information or received information from them.
Paragraph 6 – Incorporation into the Armed Forces of Deputies and Senators even if they
hold military rank and even in time of war shall depend upon theca previous granting of
permission by the respective House.
Paragraph 7 – The immunities of Deputies and Senators shall be maintained during a state
of siege and may only be suspended by the vote of two-thirds of the members of the
respective House, in the case of acts committed outside the premises of Congress, which
are not compatible with the implementation of such measure.
Article 54. Deputies and Senators may not:
1. after the issuance of their certificate of electoral victory:
1. sign or maintain a contract with a public legal entity, autonomous Government
agency, public company, mixed-capital company or public utility company, unless the
contract is in accordance with uniform clauses;
2. accept or hold a paid office, function or position including those from which they
may be dismissed ad nutum in the entities mentioned in the preceding subitem;
2. after taking office:
1. be the owners, controllers or directors of a company which enjoys benefits
arising from a contract with a public legal entity or perform a remunerated position
therein;
2. hold an office or function from which they may be dismissed ad nutum, in the
entities mentioned in item I, a;
3. act as lawyer in a cause in which any of the entities referred to in item I, a, has an
interest;
4. be the holders of more than one public elective position or office
Article 55. A Deputy or Senator shall lose his office:
1. if he violates any of the prohibitions established in the preceding article;
2. if his conduct is declared incompatible with parliamentary decorum;
3. if he fails to appear, in each legislative session, at one-third of the regular sessions of
the House to which he belongs, except for a leave of absence or a mission authorized by
the House concerned:
4. if his political rights have been lost or suspended;
5. whenever decreed by the Electoral Courts, in the cases established in this
Constitution;
6. if he is criminally convicted by a final and unappealable sentence
Paragraph 1 – Abuse of the prerogatives ensured to a Congressman or the gaining of
undue advantages, in addition to the cases defined in the internal regulations, is
incompatible with parliamentary decorum.
Paragraph 2 – In the cases of items I, II and VI, loss of office shall be declared by the
Chamber of Deputies or the Federal Senate, by secret voting and absolute majority, on
the initiative of the respective Directing Board or of a political party represented in the
National Congress, full defense being ensured.
Paragraph 3 – In the cases set forth in items III to V, the loss shall be declared by the
Directing Board of the respective House, ex officio or upon the initiative of any of its
members, or of a political party represented in the National Congress, full defense being
ensured.
Paragraph 4 – The resignation of a Congressman submitted to a legal suit that aims at or
may lead to loss of mandate, under the provisions of this article, will have its effects
suspended until the final deliberations mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 3.
Article 56. A Deputy or Senator shall not lose his office:
1. if vested with the office of Minister of State, Governor of a territory, Secretary of a
state, of the Federal District, of a territory, of a state capital or head of a temporary
diplomatic mission;
2. if on leave of absence from the respective House, by virtue of illness or, without
remuneration, to attend to private matters, provided that, in this case, the absence does
not exceed one hundred and twenty days per legislative session.
Paragraph 1. The substitute shall be called in cases of vacancy, of investiture in the
functions set forth in this article or of leave of absence exceeding one hundred and twenty
days.
Paragraph 2 – Upon the occurrence of a vacancy and there being no substitute, if more
than fifteen months remain before the end of the term of office, an election shall be held
to fill it.
Paragraph 3 – In the event of item I, the Deputy or Senator may opt for the remuneration
of the elective office.
SECTION VI – THE SESSIONS
Article 57. The National Congress shall meet each year in the Federal Capital. from
February 15 to June 30 and from August 1 to December 15.
Paragraph 1 – If sessions scheduled for these dates fall on a Saturday, a Sunday or a
holiday, they shall be transferred to the subsequent workday.
Paragraph 2 – The legislative session shall not be interrupted before the approval of the
bill of budgetary directives
Paragraph 3 – In addition to other cases provided for in this Constitution the Chamber of
Deputies and the Federal Senate shall meet in a joint session to
1. inaugurate the legislative session;
2. draw up the common regulations and regulate the creation of services common to
both Houses:
3. take the oath of the President and of the Vice-President of the Republic;
4. acknowledge a veto and resolve thereon.
Paragraph 4 – Both Houses shall meet in a preparatory session, beginning February 1 of
the first year of the legislative term, for the installation of its members and the election of
the respective Directing Boards, for a term of office of two years, the re-election to the
same office in the immediately subsequent election being prohibited.
Paragraph 5 – The Directing Board of the National Congress shall be presided by the
President of the Federal Senate and the remaining offices shall be held, alternately, by the
holders of equivalent offices in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Federal Senate.
Paragraph 6 – Special sessions of the National Congress shall be called:
1. by the President of the Federal Senate, in the event of a decree of a state of defense
or of federal intervention, of a demand for the authorization to decree a state of siege and
the taking of oath and inauguration of the President and the Vice-President of the
Republic,
2. by the President of the Republic, by the Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and
of the Federal Senate or by request of the majority of the members of both Houses, in
case of urgency or important public interest.
Paragraph 7 – In a special legislative session, the National Congress shall deliberate only
upon the matter for which it was called
SECTION VII – THE COMMITTEES
Article 58. The National Congress and both its Houses shall have permanent and
temporary committees, established in the manner and with the incumbencies set forth in
the respective regulations or in the act from which their creation
Paragraph 1. In the composition of the Directing Boards and of each committee, the
proportional representation of the parties or the parliamentary groups which participate in
the respective House shall be ensured to the extent possible.
Paragraph 2 – The committees have the power, on account of the matter under their
authority.
1. to debate and vote on bills of law which, in accordance with the regulations, are
exempt from being submitted to the Plenary Assembly, except in the event of an appeal
from one-tenth of the members of the respective House
2. to hold public audiences with entities of civil society;
3. to summon Ministers of State to render information on matters inherent to their
duties;
4. to receive petitions, claims, statements or complaints from any person against acts or
omissions of Government authorities or entities;
5. to request the testimony of any authority or citizen;
6. to examine construction work programs and national, regional and sectorial
development plans and to report thereupon.
Paragraph 3 – Parliamentary inquiry committees, which shall have the powers of
investigation inherent to the judicial authorities, in addition to other powers set forth in
the regulations of the respective Houses, shall be created by the Chamber of Deputies and
by the Federal Senate, jointly or separately, upon the request of one-third of its members,
to investigate a given fact and for a certain period of time? and their conclusions shall, if
the case may be, be forwarded to the Public Prosecution to determine the civil or criminal
liability of the offenders.
Paragraph 4 – During recess there shall be a committee to represent the National
Congress, elected by both its Houses in the last regular session of the legislative session,
with incumbencies defined in the common regulations, the composition of which shall
repeat, to the extent possible, the proportional representation of the political parties.
SECTION VIII – THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS
SUBSECTION I – GENERAL PROVISION
Article 59. The legislative process comprises the preparation of:
1. amendments to the Constitution;
2. supplementary laws;
3. ordinary laws;
4. delegated laws;
5. provisional measures;
6. legislative decrees;
Sole paragraph – A supplementary law shall provide for the preparation, drafting,
amendment and consolidation of laws.
SUBSECTION II – AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION
Article 60. The Constitution may be amended on the proposal of:
1. at least one-third of the members of the Chamber of Deputies or of the Federal
Senate;
2. the President of the Republic;
3. more than one half of the Legislative Assemblies of the units of the Federation, each
of them expressing itself by the relative majority of its members.
Paragraph l – The Constitution shall not be amended while federal intervention, a state of
defense or a state of siege is in force.
Paragraph 2 – The proposal shall be discussed and voted upon in each House of the
National Congress, in two readings, and it shall be considered approved if it obtains in
both readings, three-fifths of the votes of the respective members.
Paragraph 3 – An amendment to the Constitution shall be promulgated by the Directing
Boards of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate with the respective sequence
number.
Paragraph 4 – No proposal of amendment shall be considered which is aimed at
abolishing:
1. the federative form of State;
2. the direct, secret, universal and periodic vote;
3. the separation of the Government Powers;
4. individual rights and guarantees.
Paragraph 5 – The matter dealt with in a proposal of amendment that is rejected or
considered impaired shall not be the subject of another proposal in the same legislative
session.
SUBSECTION III – THE LAWS
*Article 61. The initiative of supplementary and ordinary laws is within the competence
of any member or committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate or the
National Congress, the President of the Republic, the Supreme Federal Court, the
Superior Courts, the Attorney-General of the Republic and the citizens, in the manner and
in the cases provided for in this Constitution.
Paragraph 1 – It is the exclusive initiative of the President of the Republic to introduce
laws that:
1. determine or modify the number of Armed Forces troops;
2. provide for:
1. creation of public offices, functions or positions in the direct administration and
in autonomous Government agencies or increases in their salaries;
2. administrative and judicial organization, tax and budgetary matters, public
services and administrative personnel of the territories;
3. government employees of the Union and Territories, their legal statute,
appointment to offices, tenure and retirement;
4. organization of the Public Prosecution and of the Public Legal Defense of the
Union, as well as general rules for the organization of the Public Prosecution and the
Public Legal Defense of the states, the Federal District and the territories;
5. creation, structuring and duties of the Ministries and public administration
agencies;
6. military of the Armed Forces, their legal statute, appointment to offices,
promotions, tenure, remuneration, retirement, and transfer to the reserve.
Paragraph 2 – The initiative of the people may be exercised by means of the presentation
to the Chamber of Deputies of a bill of law subscribed by at least one percent of the
national electorate, distributed throughout at least five states, with not less than threetenths
of one percent of the voters in each of them.

• CA 18/98
  Article 62. In important and urgent cases, the President of the Republic may adopt
  provisional measures with the force of law and shall submit them to the National
  Congress immediately, and if Congress is in recess, a special session shall be called to
  meet within five days.
  Sole paragraph – Provisional measures shall lose effectiveness from the day of their
  issuance, if they are not converted into law within a period of thirty days as from their
  publication and the National Congress shall regulate the legal relations arising therefrom.
  Article 63. An increase in expenditure proposals shall not be admitted:

1. in bills of the exclusive initiative of the President of the Republic, except for the
   provisions of article 166, paragraphs 3 and 4;
2. in bills concerning theca organization of the administrative services of the Chamber
   of Deputies, the Federal Senate, the Federal Courts and the Public Prosecution.
   Article 64. The discussion and voting of the bills of law which are the initiative of the
   President of the Republic, the Supreme Federal Court and of the Superior Courts shall
   start in the Chamber of Deputies.
   Paragraph 1 – The President of the Republic may request urgency in the examination of
   bills of his own initiative.
   Paragraph 2 – If, in the case of the preceding paragraph, the Chamber of Deputies and the
   Federal Senate fail to act, each one, successively on the proposition, within up to fortyfive
   days, this proposition shall be included in the order of the day and the deliberation
   upon other subjects shall be suspended, in order that the voting may be concluded.
   Paragraph 3 – Amendments of the Federal Senate shall be examined by the Chamber of
   Deputies within a period of ten days, in accordance, otherwise. with the provisions of the
   preceding paragraph.
   Paragraph 4 – The periods of time referred to in paragraph 2 shall not be counted while
   the Congress is in recess and shall not apply to the bills of codes.
   Article 65. A bill of law approved by one House shall be reviewed by the other in a single
   reading of discussing and voting and sent for sanctioning or promulgation, if approved by
   the reviewing House, or it shall be dismissed, if rejected.
   Sole paragraph – If the bill is amended, it shall return to the House where it was proposed.
   Article 66. The House in which voting is concluded shall send the bill of law to the
   President of the Republic, who, if he concurs, shall sanction it.
   Paragraph 1 – If the President of the Republic considers the bill of law, wholly or in part,
   unconstitutional or contrary to public interest, he shall veto it, wholly or in part, within
   fifteen work days, counted from the date of receipt and he shall, within forty-eight hours,
   inform the President of the Senate of the reasons of his veto.
   Paragraph 2 – A partial veto shall only comprise the full text of an article, paragraph, item
   or subitem.
   Paragraph 3 – After a period of fifteen days, the silence of the President of the Republic
   shall be considered as sanctioning.
   Paragraph 4 – The veto shall be examined in a joint session, within thirty days, counted
   from the date of receipt, and may only be rejected by the absolute majority of the
   Deputies and Senators, by secret voting.
   Paragraph 5 – If the veto is not upheld. the bill shall be sent to the President of the
   Republic for promulgation.
   Paragraph 6 – If the period established in paragraph 4 elapses without a decision being
   reached, the veto shall be included in the order of the day of the following session, and all
   other propositions shall be suspended until its final voting, except for the matters referred
   to in article 62, sole paragraph.
   Paragraph 7 – If, in the cases of paragraphs 3 and 5, the law is not promulgated within
   forty-eight hours by the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate shall enact
   it and if the latter fails to do so within the same period, the Vice-President of the Senate
   shall do so.
   Article 67. The matter dealt with in a rejected bill of law may only be the subject of a
   new bill during the same legislative session, upon proposal of the absolute majority of the
   members of either House of the National Congress.
   Article 68. Delegated laws shall be drawn up by the President of the Republic, who shall
   request delegation from the National Congress.
   Paragraph 1 – There shall be no delegation of acts falling within the exclusive
   competence of the National Congress, of those within the exclusive competence of the
   Chamber of Deputies or the Federal Senate, of matters reserved for supplementary laws
   and of legislation on:
3. the organization of the Judicial Power and of the Public Prosecution, the career and
   guarantees of their members;
4. nationality, citizenship, individual, political and electoral rights,
5. pluriannual plans. budgetary directives and budgets.
   Paragraph 2 – The delegation to the President of the Republic shall take the form of a
   resolution of the National Congress, which shall specify its contents and the terms of its
   exercise.
   Paragraph 3 – If the resolution calls for consideration of the bill by the National Congress,
   the latter shall do so in a single voting, any amendment being forbidden.
   Article 69. Supplementary laws shall be approved by absolute majority.
   SECTION IX – ACCOUNTING, FINANCIAL AND BUDGETARY
   CONTROL
   Article 70. Control of accounts, finances, budget, operations and property of the Union
   and of the agencies of the direct and indirect administration, as to lawfulness, legitimacy,
   economic efficiency, application of subsidies and waiver of revenues, shall be exercised
   by the National Congress, by means of external control and of the internal control system
   of each Power.
   Sole paragraph – Accounts shall be rendered by any individual or public entity which
   uses, collects, keeps, or manages public monies, assets or values, or those for which the
   Union is responsible or which, on behalf of the Union, assumes obligations of a
   pecuniary nature.
   Article 71. External control, incumbent on the National Congress, shall be exercised with
   the aid of the Federal Court of Accounts, which shall:
6. examine the accounts rendered annually by the President of the Republic, by means
   of a prior opinion which shall be prepared in sixty days counted from receipt;
7. evaluate the accounts of the administrators and other persons responsible for public
   monies, assets and values of the direct and indirect administration, including foundations
   and companies instituted and maintained by the Federal Government as well as the
   accounts of those who have caused a loss, misplacement or other irregularity resulting in
   losses to the public treasury:
8. examine, for the purpose of registration, the lawfulness of acts of admission of
   personnel, on any account, in the direct and indirect administration, including the
   foundations instituted and maintained by the Federal Government, with the exception of
   the appointments to commission offices, as well as the granting of civil and military
   retirement and pensions, except for subsequent improvements which do not alter the legal
   fundaments of the conceding act;
9. carry out, on its own initiative or on that of the Chamber of Deputies, of the Federal
   Senate, or of a technical or inquiry committee, inspection and audits of an accounting,
   financial, budgetary, operational or property nature in the administrative units of the
   Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers and other entities referred to in item II;
10. control the national accounts of supranational companies in whose capital stock the
    Union holds a direct or indirect interest, as set forth in the acts of incorporation:
11. control the use of any funds transferred by the Union, by means of an agreement,
    arrangement, adjustment or any other similar instrument, to a state, the Federal District or
    a municipality;
12. render the information requested by the National Congress, by either of its Houses or
    by any of the respective committees concerning accounting, financial, budgetary,
    operational and property control and the results of audits and inspections made;
13. in case of illegal expenses or irregular accounts, apply to the responsible parties the
    sanctions provided by law, which shall establish, among other comminations, a fine
    proportional to the damages caused to the public treasury;
14. determine a period of time for the agency or entity to take the necessary steps for the
    strict compliance with the law, if an illegality is established;
15. if not heeded, stop the execution of the impugned act, notifying the Chamber of
    Deputies and the Federal Senate of such decision;
16. present a formal charge to the competent Power on any irregularities or abuses
    verified.
    Paragraph 1 – In the case of a contract, the restraining act shall be adopted directly by the
    National Congress, which shall immediately request the Executive Power to take the
    applicable measures.
    Paragraph 2 – If the National Congress or the Executive Power, within ninety days, do not
    take the measures provided for in the preceding paragraph. the Court shall decide on the
    matter.
    Paragraph 3 – Decisions of the Court resulting in the imposition of a debt or fine shall
    have the effectiveness of an execution instrument.
    Paragraph 4 – The Court shall, quarterly and annually, forward to the National Congress a
    report on its activities.
    Article 72. In view of indications of unauthorized expenditure, even if in the form of nonprogrammed
    investments or non-approved subsidies, the permanent joint Committee
    referred to in article 166, paragraph 1, may request the responsible Government authority
    to render the necessary explanation, within five days.
    Paragraph 1 – If the explanations are not rendered or are considered insufficient, the
    Committee shall request the Court to make a conclusive statement on the matter within
    thirty days.
    Paragraph 2 – If the Court deems the expense to be irregular, the Committee shall, if it
    considers that the expenditure may cause irreparable damage or serious injury to the
    public economy, propose to the National Congress that it be suspended.
    Article 73. The Court of Accounts of the Union, formed by nine Justices, shall have its
    seat in the Federal District, its own staff and jurisdiction throughout the national territory,
    and shall exercise, insofar as pertinent, the incumbencies provided for in article 96.
    Paragraph 1. The Justices of the Court of Accounts of the Union shall be appointed from
    among Brazilians who meet the following requirements:
17. more than thirty-five and less than sixty-five years of age;
18. moral integrity and spotless reputation;
19. notable knowledge of the law, accounting, economics and finances or of public
    administration;
20. more than ten years of exercise of office or of actual professional activity which
    requires the knowledge mentioned in the preceding item.
    Paragraph 2 – The Justices of the Court of Accounts of the Union shall be chosen:
21. one-third by the President of the Republic with the approval of the Federal Senate,
    two of them being alternately chosen from among auditors and members of the Public
    Prosecution at the Court, as indicated in a triple list by the Court, in accordance with
    criteria of seniority and merit:
22. two-thirds by the National Congress.
    Paragraph 3 – The Justices of the Court of Accounts of the Union shall have the same
    guarantees, prerogatives, impediments, remuneration and advantages as the Justices of
    the Superior Court of Justice and may only retire with the advantages of the office if they
    have actually held it for more than five years.
    Paragraph 4 – The auditor, when substituting for a Justice, shall have the same guarantees
    and impediments as the incumbent Justice, and, when in exercise of the other duties of
    the judicature, those of a Judge of a Federal Regional Court.
    Article 74. The Legislative, Executive and Judicial Powers shall maintain an i ntegrated
    system of internal control for the purpose of:
23. evaluating the attainment of the goals established in the pluriannual plan, the
    implementation of government programmes and of the budgets of theca Union:
24. verifying the lawfulness and evaluating the results, as to effectiveness and efficiency,
    of the budgetary, financial and property management in the agencies and entities of the
    federal administration, as well as the use of public funds by private legal entities;
25. exercising control over credit transactions, collateral signatures and guarantees, as
    well as over the rights and assets of the Union,
26. supporting external control in the exercise of its institutional misrion.
    Paragraph 1. The persons responsible for internal control shall, upon learning of any
    irregularity or illegality, inform the Court of Accounts of the Union about it, subject to
    joint liability.
    Paragraph 2 – Any citizen, political party. association or labour union has standing under
    the law to denounce irregularities or illegalities to the Court of Accounts of the Union.
    Article 75. The rules set forth in this section shall apply, where appropriate, to the
    organization, composition and control of the Court of Accounts of the states and of the
    Federal District, as well as the Courts and Councils of Accounts of the municipalities.
    Sole paragraph – The state Constitutions shall provide for the respective Courts of
    Accounts, which shall be formed by seven council members.
    CHAPTER II – THE EXECUTIVE
    POWER
    SECTION I – THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE
    REPUBLIC
    Article 76. The Executive Power is exercised by the President of the Republic. assisted
    by the Ministers of State.
    *Article 77. The election of the President and Vice-President of the Republic shall take
    place simultaneously, on the first Sunday of October, in the first round, and on the last
    Sunday of October, in the second round, as the case may be, of the year preceding the one
    in which the current presidential term of office ends.
    Paragraph 1. The election of the President of the Republic shall imply the election of the
    Vice-President registered with him.
    Paragraph 2 – The candidate who, being registered by a political party, obtains an
    absolute majority of votes, not counting blank or void votes, shall be considered elected
    President.
    Paragraph 3 – If no candidate attains an absolute majority in the first voting, another
    election shall be held within twenty days from the announcement of the results, the
    competition being between the two candidates with the highest number of votes, and
    being considered elected the candidate with the majority of valid votes.
    Paragraph 4 – Should one of the candidates, before the second round of voting is held,
    die, withdraw or become legally impaired, the candidate with the highest number of votes
    among the remaining candidates shall be called.
    Paragraph 5 – If in the event of the preceding paragraphs, more than one candidate with
    an equal number of votes remain in second place, the eldest one shall qualify.

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  Article 78. The President and the Vice-President of the Republic shall take office in a
  session of the National Congress, pledging to maintain, defend and carry out the
  Constitution, obey the laws, promote the general well-being of the Brazilian people,
  sustain the union, the integrity and the independence of Brazil.
  Sole paragraph – In the event that, after ten days from the date scheduled for the
  inauguration, the President or the Vice-President, except by reason of force majeure has
  not taken office. the office shall be declared vacant.
  Article 79. The Vice-President shall replace the President in the event of impediment and
  shall succeed him in the event of vacancy.
  Sole paragraph – In addition to other duties attributed to him by a supplementary law, the
  Vice-President shall assist the President whenever summoned by him for special
  missions.
  Article 80. In the event of impediment of the President and of the Vice- President or of
  vacancy of the respective offices, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, the President
  of the Senate and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Federal Court shall be called
  successively to exercise the Presidency.
  Article 81. In the event of vacancy of the offices of President and Vice-President of the
  Republic, elections shall be held ninety days after the occurrence of the last vacancy.
  Paragraph 1 – If the vacancy occurs during the last two years of the President’s term of
  office, the National Congress shall hold elections for both offices thirty days after the last
  vacancy. as established bv law.
  Paragraph 2 – In any of the cases, those elected shall complete the term of office of their
  predecessors.
  *Article 82. The term of office of the President of the Republic is four years, and it shall
  commence on January 1 of the year following the year of his election.

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  Article 83. The President and the Vice-President of the Republic may not, without
  authorization from the National Congress, leave the country for a period of more than
  fifteen days, subject to loss of office.
  SECTION II – DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
  Article 84.The President of the Republic shall have the exclusive power to:

1. appoint and dismiss the Ministers of State:
2. exercise, with the assistance of the Ministers of State, the higher management of the
   federal administration;
3. start the legislative procedure, in the manner and in the cases set forth in this
   Constitution;
4. sanction, promulgate and order the publication of laws, as well as to issue decrees
   and regulations for the true enforcement thereof;
5. veto bills, wholly or in part;
6. provide for the organization and operation of the federal administration, as
   established by law;
7. maintain relations with foreign States and to accredit their diplomatic
   representatives;
8. conclude international treaties, conventions and acts, ad referendum of the National
   Congress;
9. decree the state of defense and the state of siege;
10. decree and enforce federal intervention;
11. upon the opening of the legislative session, send a government message and plan to
    the National Congress, describing the state of the nation and requesting the actions he
    deems necessary;
12. grant pardons and reduce sentences, after hearing the entities instituted by law, if
    necessary;
13. exercise the supreme command of the Armed Forces, to promote general officers
    and to appoint them to the offices held exclusively by them;
14. appoint, after approval by the Senate, the Justices of the Supreme Federal Court and
    those of the superior courts, the Governors of the territories, the Attorney-General of the
    Republic, the President and the Directors of the Central Bank and other civil servants,
    when established by law;
15. appoint, with due regard for the provisions of article 73, the Justices of the Federal
    Court of Accounts;
16. appoint judges in the events established by this Constitution and the AdvocateGeneral
    of the Union;
17. appoint members of the Council of the Republic, in accordance with article 89, VII;
18. call and preside over the Council of the Republic and the National Defense Council;
19. declare war, in the event of foreign aggression, authorized by the National Congress
    or confirmed by it, whenever it occurs between legislative sessions and, under the same
    conditions, to decree full or partial national mobilization
20. make peace, authorized or confirmed by the National Congress;
21. award decorations and honorary distinctions;
22. permit, in the cases set forth by supplementary law, foreign forces to pass through
    the national territory, or to remain temporarily therein;
23. submit to the National Congress the pluriannual plan, the bill of budgetary directives
    and the budget proposals set forth in this Constitution;
24. render, each year, accounts to the National Congress concerning the previous fiscal
    year, within sixty days of the opening of the legislative session;
25. fill and abolish federal government positions, as set forth by law;
26. issue provisional measures, with force of law, according to article 62:
27. perform other duties set forth in this Constitution.
    Sole paragraph – The President of the Republic may delegate the duties mentioned in
    items VI, XII and XXV, first part, to the Ministers of State, to the Attorney-General of
    the Republic or to the Advocate-General of the Union, who shall observe the limitations
    established in the respective delegations.
    SECTION III – LIABILITY OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
    Article 85. Those acts of the President of the Republic which attempt on the Federal
    Constitution and especially on the following, are crimes of malversation:
28. the existence of the Union;
29. the free exercise of the Legislative Power, the Judicial Power, the Public Prosecution
    and the constitutional Powers of the units of the Federation;
30. the exercise of political, individual and social rights;
31. the internal security of the country;
32. probity in the administration;
33. the budgetary law;
34. compliance with the laws and with court decisions.
    Sole paragraph – These crimes shall be defined in a special law, which shall establish the
    rules of procedure and trial.
    Article 86. If charges against the President of the Republic are accepted by two-thirds of
    the Chamber of Deputies, he shall be submitted to trial before the Supreme Federal Court
    for common criminal offenses or before the Federal Senate for crimes of malversation.
    Paragraph 1 – The President shall be suspended from his functions:
35. in common criminal offenses, if the accusation or the complaint is received bv the
    Federal Supreme Court:
36. in the event of crimes of malversation, after the proceeding is instituted bv the
    Federal Senate.
    Paragraph 2 – If, after a period of one hundred and eighty days, the trial has not been
    concluded, the suspension of the President shall cease without prejudice to the normal
    progress of the proceeding.
    Paragraph 3 – In the event of common offenses, the President of the Republic shall not be
    subject to arrest as long as no sentence is rendered.
    Paragraph 4 – During his term of office, the President of the Republic may not be held
    liable to acts outside the performance of his functions.
    SECTION IV – THE MINISTERS OF STATE
    Article 87. The Ministers of State shall be chosen from among Brazilians over twentyone
    years of age and in possession of their political rights.
    Sole paragraph – The Minister of State, in addition to other duties established in this
    Constitution and in the law, has the power to:
37. exercise guidance, coordination and supervision of the agencies and entities of the
    federal administration in the area of his authority and to countersign acts and decrees
    signed by the President of the Republic;
38. issue instructions for the enforcement of laws, decrees and regulations;
39. submit to the President of the Republic an annual report on his administration of the
    Ministry.
40. perform the acts pertinent to the duties assigned or delegated to him by the President
    of the Republic.
    Article 88. The law shall provide for the creation, structuring and duties of the Ministries.
    SECTION V – THE COUNCIL OF THE REPUBLIC AND THE
    NATIONAL DEFENSE COUNCIL
    SUBSECTION I – THE COUNCIL OF THE REPUBLIC
    Article 89. The Council of the Republic is a higher body for consultation by the President
    of the Republic, and its members are:
41. the Vice-President of the Republic;
42. the President of the Chamber of Deputies;
43. the President of the Federal Senate;
44. the majority and the minority leaders in the Chamber of Deputies;
45. the majority and the minority leaders in the Federal Senate;
46. the Minister of Justice;
47. six born Brazilian citizens, with over thirty-five years of age, two of which appointed
    by the President of the Republic, two elected by the Federal Senate and two elected by
    the Chamber of Deputies, all with a term of office of three years, the re-appointment
    being prohibited.
    Article 90. The Council of the Republic has the competence to express opinion on:
48. federal intervention, state of defense and state of siege;
49. matters relevant to the stability of the democratic institutions.
    Paragraph 1. The President of the Republic may call a State Minister to participate in the
    Council meeting, when the agenda includes a matter related to the respective Ministry.
    Paragraph 2 – The organization and operation of the Council of the Republic shall be
    regulated by law.
    SUBSECTION II – THE NATIONAL DEFENSE COUNCIL
    Article 91. The National Defense Council is a consultation body of the President of the
    Republic on matters related to national sovereignty and the defense of the democratic
    state, and the following participate in it as natural members:
50. the Vice-President of the Republic;
51. the President of the Chamber of Deputies;
52. the President of the Federal Senate;
53. the Minister of Justice;
54. the military Ministers;
55. the Minister of External Relations;
56. the Minister of Planning.
    Paragraph 1 – It is the competence of the National Defense Council:
57. to express opinion in the event of declaration of war and making of peace, as
    established in this Constitution;
58. to express opinion on the decreeing of state of defense, state of siege and federal
    intervention;
59. to propose the criteria and conditions for the use of areas which are indispensable to
    the security of the national territory and to express opinion on their actual use, especially
    on the boundary zone and on those related to the preservation and exploitation of natural
    resources of any kind;
60. to study, propose and monitor the development of initiatives required to guarantee
    national independence and the defense of the democratic state.
    Paragraph 2 – The organization and the operation of the National Defense Council shall
    be regulated by law.
    CHAPTER III – THE JUDICIAL
    POWER
    SECTION I GENERAL PROVISIONS
    Article 92. The following are the bodies of the Judicial Power:
61. the Supreme Federal Court;
62. the Superior Court of Justice;
63. the Federal Regional Courts and the Federal Judges;
64. the Labour Courts and Judges;
65. the Electoral Courts and Judges;
66. the Military Courts and Judges;
67. the Courts and Judges of the states, of the Federal District and of the territories.
    Sole paragraph – The Supreme Federal Court and the Superior Courts have their seat in
    the Federal Capital and their jurisdiction over the entire Brazilian territory.
    Article 93. A supplementary law, proposed by the Supreme Federal Court, shall provide
    for the Statute of the Judicature, observing the following principles:
68. admission into the career, with the initial post of substitute judge, by means of a civil
    service entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional
    credentials, with the participation of the Brazilian Bar Association in all phases, obeying
    the order of classification for appointments;
69. promotion from level to level, based on seniority and merit. alternately, observing the
    following rules:
70. the promotion of a judge who has appeared in a merit list for three consecutive
    times or for five alternate times is mandatory;
71. merit promotion requires two years in office in the respective level and that the
    judge should appear in the top fifth part of the seniority list of such level, unless no one
    satisfying such requirements is willing to accept the vacant post;
72. appraisal of merit according to the criteria of promptness and reliability in the
    exercise of the jurisdictional function and according to attendance and achievement in
    recognized improvement courses.
73. in determining seniority, the court may only reject the judge with the longest
    service by the vote of two-thirds of its members, according to a specific procedure, the
    voting being repeated until the selection is determined;
74. access to the courts of second instance shall obey seniority and merit, alternately, as
    determined at the last level, or if existing, at the Court of Appeals, in the case of
    promotion to the Court of Justice, in accordance with item II and the candidate’s class of
    origin;
75. provision of official courses for preparation and improvement of judges as requisites
    for admission and promotion in their careers;
76. the remuneration of judges shall be established with a difference of not more than ten
    per cent from one to another career category, and under no circumstances may such
    remuneration exceed that of the Justices of the Supreme Federal Court;
77. retirement with full pay is compulsory upon disability or at seventy years of age, and
    optional after thirty years of service, after five years of effective activity in the judicature;
78. a permanent judge shall reside in the respective judicial district;
79. the acts of removal, of placement on paid availability and of retirement of a judge,
    for public interest, shall be based on a decision by the vote of two-thirds of the respective
    court, full defense being ensured;
80. all judgements of the bodies of the Judicial Power shall be public, and all decisions
    shall be justified, under penalty of nullity, and the law may, if the public interest so
    requires, limit attendance in given acts to the interested parties and their lawyers, or only
    to the latter;
81. the administrative decisions of the courts shall be supported by a recital, and
    disciplinary decisions shall be taken by the vote of the absolute majority of their
    members;
82. in courts with more than twenty-five judges, a special body may be constituted, with
    a minimum of eleven and a maximum of twenty-five members to exercise the
    administrative and jurisdictional duties which are under the powers of the full court.
    Article 94. One-fifth of the seats of the Federal Regional Courts, of the Courts of the
    States, and of the Federal District and the Territories shall be occupied by members of the
    Public Prosecution, with over ten years of office, and by lawyers of notable juridical
    learning and spotless reputation, with over ten years of effective professional activity,
    nominated in a list of six names by the entities representing the respective classes.
    Sole paragraph – Upon receiving the nominations, the court shall organize a list of three
    names and shall send it to the Executive Power, which shall. within the subsequent
    twenty days, select one of the listed names for appointment.
    Article 95. Judges enjoy the following guarantees:
83. life tenure, which, at first instance, shall only be acquired after two years in office,
    loss of office being dependent, during this period, on deliberation of the court to which
    the judge is subject, and, in other cases, on a final and unappealable judicial decision;
84. irremovability, save for reason of public interest, under the terms of article 93, VIII;
85. irreducibility of pay, observing, as regards remuneration, the provisions of articles
    37, XI, 150, II, 153, III, and 153, paragraph 2, I.
    Sole paragraph – Judges are forbidden to:
86. hold, even when on paid availability, another office or position, except for a teaching
    position;
87. receive, on any account or for any reason, court costs or participation in a lawsuit;
88. engage in political or party activities.
    Article 96. It is of the exclusive competence of:
89. the courts:
90. to elect their directive bodies and to draw up their internal regulations, in
    compliance with the rules of proceedings and the procedural guarantees of the parties,
    and regulating the competence and the operation of the respective jurisdictional and
    administrative bodies;
91. to organize their secretariats and auxiliary services, as well as those of the
    tribunals connected with them, guaranteeing the exercise of the respective inspection
    activities;
92. to fill, under the terms of this Constitution, offices of career judges within their
    respective jurisdiction;
93. to propose the creation of new courts of first instance;
94. to fill, by means of a civil service entrance examination of tests, or of tests and
    presentation of academic and professional credentials according to the provisions of
    article 169, sole paragraph, the offices required for the administration of justice, except
    for the positions of trust as defined in law;
95. to grant leave, vacations and other absences to their members and to the judges
    and employees who are immediately subordinated to them;
96. the Supreme Federal Court, the Superior Courts and the Courts of Justice, to propose
    to the respective Legislative Power, with due regard for the provisions of article 169:
97. alteration in the number of members of the lower courts;
98. creation and extinction of offices and establishment of pay for their members, for
    the judges, including those of the lower courts, if existing, for the auxiliary services and
    for the courts connected with them;
99. creation or extinction of inferior courts;
100. alteration of the judicial organization and division;
101. the Courts of Justice, to try judges of the states, of the Federal District and of the
     Territories, as well as members of the Public Prosecution, for common crimes and crimes
     of malversation, except in those cases within the competency of the Electoral Code.
     Article 97. The courts may declare a law or a normative act of the Government
     unconstitutional only by the vote of the absolute majority of their members or of the
     members of the respective special body.
     Article 98. The Union, in the Federal District and in the territories, and the states shall
     create:
102. special courts, filled by togated judges, or by togated and lay judges, with powers for
     conciliation, judgement and execution of civil suits of lesser complexity and criminal
     offenses of lower offensive potential, by oral and summary proceedings, allowing, in the
     cases established in law, the settlement and judgement of appeals by panels of judges of
     first instance;
103. remunerated justice of peace, formed by citizens elected by direct, universal and
     secret vote, with a term of office of four years and competence to, under the terms of the
     law, perform marriages, examine qualification proceedings, ex officio or in view of the
     presentation of a challenge, and exercise conciliatory functions, of a nonjurisdictional
     nature, besides others established by law.
     Article 99. The Judicial Power is ensured of administrative and financial autonomy.
     Paragraph 1 – The courts shall prepare their budget proposals, within theca limits
     stipulated jointly with the other Powers in the law of budgetary directives.
     Paragraph 2 – The proposal shall, after hearing the other interested courts, be forwarded.
104. at the federal level, by the presidents of the Supreme Federal Court and of the
     Superior Courts, with the approval of the respective courts;
105. at the level of the states and of the Federal District and the territories, by the
     presidents of the Courts of Justice, with the approval of the respective courts.
     Article 100. With the exception of alimony credits, payments owed by the Federal, state
     or municipal treasuries, by virtue of a court decision, shall be made exclusively in
     chronological order of presentation of judicial requests and charged to the respective
     credits, it being forbidden to designate cases or persons in the budgetary appropriations
     and in the additional credits opened for such purpose.
     Paragraph 1 – It is mandatory for the budgets of public entities to include the funds
     required for the payment of debts shown on the judicial requests presented until or on
     July 1, on which date their values shall be adjusted, and the payment shall be made before
     the end of the following fiscal year.
     Paragraph 2 – The budgetary allocations and the credits opened shall be assigned to the
     Judicial Power, and the respective amounts shall be distributed to the competent
     departments, it being within the competence of the President of the Court which rendered
     the decision of execution to determine payment, according to the possibilities of the
     deposit, and to authorize, upon petition of a creditor and exclusively in the event that his
     right of precedence is not respected, seizure of the amount required to satisfy the debt.
     SECTION II – THE SUPREME FEDERAL COURT
     Article 101. The Supreme Federal Court is composed of eleven Justices, chosen from
     among citizens over thirty-five and under sixty-five years of age, of notable juridical
     learning and spotless reputation.
     Sole paragraph – The Justices of the Supreme Federal Court shall be appointed by the
     President of the Republic, after their nomination has been approved by the absolute
     majority of the Federal Senate.
     Article 102. The Supreme Federal Court is responsible, essentially, for safeguarding the
     Constitution, and it is within its competence:
106. to institute legal proceeding and trial, in the first instance, of:
107. direct actions of unconstitutionality of a federal or state law or normative act, and
     declaratory actions of constitutionality of a federal law or normative act;
108. in common criminal offenses, the President of the Republic, theca VicePresident,
     the members of the National Congress, its own Justices and the AttorneyGeneral
     of the Republic;
109. in common criminal offenses and crimes of malversation, the Ministers of State,
     except as provided in article 52, I, the members of the Superior Courts, those of the
     Federal Court of Accounts and the heads of permanent diplomatic missions;
110. habeas corpus, when the petitioner is any one of the persons referred to in the
     preceding subitems; the writ of mandamus and habeas data against acts of the President
     of the Republic, of the Directing Boards of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Federal
     Senate, of the Federal Court of Accounts, of the Attorney-General of the Republic and of
     the Supreme Federal Court itself;
111. litigation between a foreign State or an international organization and the Union,
     a state, the Federal District or a territory;
112. disputes and conflicts between the Union and the states, the Union and the
     Federal District, or between one another, including the respective indirect administration
     bodies:
113. extradition requested by a foreign state;
114. homologation of foreign court decisions and the granting of exequatur to letters
     rogatory which may be conferred by its internal regulations upon its President;
115. habeas corpus, when the constraining party or the petitioner is a court, authority
     or employee whose acts are directly subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Federal
     Court, or in the case of a crime, subject to the same jurisdiction in one sole instance;
116. criminal review of and rescissory action against its decisions;
117. claims for the preservation of its powers and guarantee of the authority of its
     decisions;
118. enforcement of court decisions in the cases where it has original competence, the
     delegation of duties to perform procedural acts being allowed;
119. a suit in which all members of the judicature are directly or indirectly involved,
     and a suit in which more than half of the members of the court of origin are disqualified
     or have a direct or indirect interest;
120. conflicts of powers between the Superior Court of Justice and any other courts,
     between Superior Courts, or between the latter and any other court;
121. petitions of provisional remedy in direct actions of unconstitutionality;
122. writs of injunction, when drawing up of the regulation is the responsibility of the
     President of the Republic, of the National Congress, of the Chamber of Deputies, of the
     Federal Senate, of the Directing Boards of one of these legislative houses, of the Federal
     Court of Accounts, of one of the Superior Courts, or of the Supreme Federal Court itself;
123. to judge on ordinary appeal:
124. habeas corpus, writs of mandamus, habeas data and writs of injunction decided in
     a sole instance by the Superior Courts, in the event of a denial;
125. political crimes;
126. to judge, on extraordinary appeal, cases decided in a sole or last instance, when the
     decision appealed:
127. is contrary to a provision of this Constitution;
128. declares a treaty or a federal law unconstitutional;
129. considers valid a law or act of a local government contested in the light of this
     Constitution.
     Paragraph 1. A claim of non-compliance with a fundamental precept deriving from this
     Constitution shall be examined by the Supreme Federal Court, under the terms of the law.
     Paragraph 2 – Final decisions on judgments, pronounced b! the Supreme Federal Court, in
     declaratory actions of constitutionality of a federal law or normative act, shall have force
     against all, as well as a binding effect, as regards the other bodies of the Judicial Power,
     as well as the Executive Power.
     Article 103. The following may file an action of unconstitutionality:
130. the President of the Republic;
131. the Directing Board of the Federal Senate;
132. the Directing Board of the Chamber of Deputies;
133. the Directing Board of a State Legislative Assembly;
134. a State Governor;
135. the Attorney-General of the Republic;
136. the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association;
137. a political party represented in the National Congress;
138. a confederation of labour unions or a professional association of a nationwide nature.
     Paragraph 1 – The Attorney-General of the Republic shall be previously heard in actions
     of unconstitutionality and in all suits under the power of the Supreme Federal Court.
     Paragraph 2 – When unconstitutionality is declared on account of lack of a measure to
     render a constitutional provision effective, the competent Power shall be notified for the
     adoption of the necessary actions and, in the case of an administrative body. to do so
     within thirty days.
     Paragraph 3 – When the Supreme Federal Court examines the unconstitutionality in
     abstract of a legal provision or normative act, it shall first summon the Advocate-General
     of the Union, who shall defend theca impugned act or text.
     Paragraph 4 – A declaratory action of constitutionality may be filed by the President of
     the Republic, the Directing Board of the Federal Senate, the Directing Board of the
     Chamber of Deputies or by the Attorney-General of the Republic.
     SECTION III – THE SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
     Article 104. The Superior Court of Justice is composed of a minimum of thirty- three
     Justices.
     Sole paragraph – The Justices of the Superior Court of Justice shall be appointed by the
     President of the Republic, chosen from among Brazilians over thirty-five and under sixtyfive
     years of age, of notable juridical learning and spotless reputation, after the
     nomination has been approved by the Federal Senate, as follows:
139. one-third shall be chosen from among judges of the Federal Regional Courts and
     one-third from among judges of the Courts of Justice, nominated in a list of three names
     prepared by the Court itself;
140. one-third, in equal parts, shall be chosen from among lawyers and members of the
     Federal Public Prosecution, the Public Prosecution of the states, the Public Prosecution of
     the Federal District and the Territories, alternately, nominated under the terms of article
141. Article 105. The Superior Court of Justice has the competence to:
142. institute legal proceeding and trial, in the first instance, of:
143. in common crimes, the Governors of the states and of the Federal District, and, in
     such crimes and in crimes of malversation, the judges of the Courts of Justice of the
     states and of the Federal District. the members of the Courts of Accounts of the states and
     of the Federal District, those of the Federal Regional Courts, of the Regional Electoral
     and Labour Courts, the members of Councils or Courts of Accounts of the municipalities
     and the members of the Public Prosecution of the Union who act before court;
144. writs of mandamus and habeas data against an act of a Minister of State or of the
     Court itself;
145. habeas corpus, when the constraining party or the petitioner is any of the persons
     mentioned in subitem a, or when the constraining party is a Minister of State, except for
     the competence of the Electoral Courts;
146. conflicts of competence between any courts, except as provided in article 102, I,
     o, as well as between a court and the judges not subject to it and between judges subject
     to different courts;
147. criminal review of and the rescissory actions against its decisions;
148. claims for the preservation of its competence and guarantee of the authority of its
     decisions;
149. conflicts of duties between administrative and judicial authorities of the Union,
     or between judicial authorities of one state and administrative authorities of another or of
     the Federal District, or between those of the latter and those of the Union;
150. writs of injunction, when the drawing up of a regulation is the responsibility of a
     federal body, entity, or authority, of the direct or indirect administration X h the
     exceptional of the cases within the competence of the Supreme Federal Court and of the
     bodies of the Military Justice, of the Electoral Justice, of the Labour Justice and of the
     Federal Justice:
151. judge, on ordinary appeal:
152. habeas corpus decided in a sole or last instance by the Federal Regional Courts or
     by the courts of the states, of the Federal District and the Territories, in the event of a
     denial;
153. writs of mandamus decided in a sole instance by the Federal Regional Courts or
     by the courts of the states, of the Federal District and the Territories, in the event of a
     denial;
154. cases in which the parties are a foreign state or international organization, on the
     one part, and a municipality or a person residing or domiciled in the country, on the other
     part;
155. judge, on special appeal, the cases decided, in a sole or last instance. by the Federal
     Regional Courts or by the courts of the states, of the Federal District and the Territories,
     when the decision appealed:
156. is contrary to a treaty or a federal law, or denies it effectiveness;
157. considers valid a law or act of a local government contested in the light of a
     federal law;
158. confers upon a federal law an interpretation different from that which has been
     conferred upon it by another court.
     Sole paragraph – The Council of Federal Justice shall operate at the Superior Court of
     Justice, and it shall, under the terms of the law, exercise administrative and budgetary
     supervision over the Federal Courts of first and second instances.
     SECTION IV – THE FEDERAL REGIONAL COURTS AND THE
     FEDERAL JUDGES
     Article 106. The following are the bodies of Federal Justice:
159. the Federal Regional Courts;
160. the Federal Judges.
     Article 107. The Federal Regional Courts are composed of a minimum of seven judges,
     selected, whenever possible, in the respective region and nominated by the President of
     the Republic from among Brazilians over thirty and under sixty-five years of age, as
     follows:
161. one-fifth shall be chosen from among lawyers effectively practicing their
     professional act for more than ten years and from among members of the Federal Public
     Prosecution. with over ten years of service;
162. the others, by means of promotion of federal judges with over five years in office, for
     seniority and merit, alternatively.
     Sole paragraph – A law shall regulate the removal or exchange of judges of the Federal
     Regional Courts and shall determine their jurisdiction and seat.
     Article 108. The Federal Regional Courts have the competence to:
163. institute legal proceeding and trial, in the first instance, of:
164. federal judges within the area of their jurisdiction, including those of the Military
     and Labour Courts, in common crimes and crimes of malversation, and the members of
     the Public Prosecution of the Union, except for the competence of the Electoral Courts;
165. criminal reviews and the rescissory actions against their decisions or decisions of
     the federal judges of the region;
166. writs of mandamus and habeas data against an act of the Court itself or of a
     federal judge;
167. habeas corpus, when the constraining authority is a federal judge;
168. conflicts of competence between federal judges subject to the Court:
169. judge, at the level of appeal, cases decided by federal judges and by state judges in
     the exercise of the federal competence within the area of their jurisdiction.
     Article 109. The federal judges have the competence to institute legal proceeding and
     trial of:
170. cases in which the Union, an autonomous government agency or a federal public
     company have an interest as plaintiffs, defendants, privies or interveners, with the
     exception of cases of bankruptcy, of job-related accidents, and of those subject to the
     Electoral and Labour Courts;
171. cases between a foreign state or international organization and a municipality or a
     person domiciled or residing in the country;
172. cases based on a treaty or a contract between the Union and a foreign State or
     international organization;
173. political crimes and criminal offenses committed against the assets, services or an
     interest of the Union or of its autonomous agencies or public companies, excluding
     misdemeanours and excepting the competence of the Military and Electoral Courts;
174. crimes covered by an international treaty or convention, when, the indirect
     administration of the cases within the prosecution having started in the country, the result
     has taken place or should have taken place abroad, or conversely;
175. habeas corpus, in criminal matters within their competence or when the coercion is
     exercised by an authority whose acts are not directly subject to another jurisdiction;
176. writs of mandamus and habeas data against an act of a federal authority, except for
     the cases within the competence of the federal courts;
177. crimes committed aboard ships or aircrafts, excepting the competence of the Military
     Courts;
178. crimes or irregular entry or stay of a foreigner, execution of letters rogatory, after
     exequatur, and of foreign court decisions, after homologation. eases related to nationality,
     including the respective option, and to naturalization;
179. disputes over the rights of Indians.
     Paragraph 1 – Cases in which the Union is the plaintiff shall be instituted in the judicial
     section where the other party is domiciled.
     Paragraph 2 – Cases brought against the Union may be instituted in the judicial section
     where the plaintiffs domiciled, or where the act or fact giving rise to the suit occurred or
     where the item is located, or further, in the Federal District.
     Paragraph 3 – Cases in which the parties are a social security institution and its
     beneficiary shall undergo legal proceeding and trial in the state courts, in the forum of the
     domicile of the beneficiaries or insured participants, whenever the district is not the seat
     of a federal court of first instance, in which case the law may allow other eases to be also
     processed and judged by the state courts.
     Paragraph 4 – In the event of the preceding paragraph, the appropriate appeal shall always
     be taken to the Federal Regional Court within the area of jurisdiction of a judge of first
     instance.
     Article 110. Each state, as well as the Federal District, shall be a judicial session, which
     shall have its seat in the respective capital, and there shall be courts of first instance
     located where established in law.
     Sole paragraph – In the Federal Territories, the jurisdiction and duties attributed to federal
     judges shall be within the competence of the judges of the local justice. under the terms
     of the law.
     SECTION V – LABOUR COURTS AND JUDGES
     Article 111. The following are the bodies of Labour Justice:
180. the Superior Labour Court;
181. the Regional Labour Courts;
182. the Boards of Conciliation and Judgement.
     Paragraph 1 – The Superior Labour Court shall be composed. of twenty- seven Justices,
     chosen from among Brazilians over thirty-five and under sixty- five years of age,
     appointed by the President of the Republic after approval by the Federal Senate, as
     follows:
183. seventeen tenured togated judges, of which eleven shall be chosen from among
     career labour judges, three from among lawyers and three from among members of the
     Labour Public Prosecution;
184. ten temporary judges, representing professional categories, with parity of
     representation of employees and employers.
     Paragraph 2 – The Court shall forward lists of three names to the President of the
     Republic, observing, as regards the vacancies intended for lawyers and for members of
     the Public Prosecution, the provisions of article 94, and, as regards temporary judges, the
     result of the appointment by an electoral college composed of the boards of directors of
     the national confederations of workers or employers, as the case may be; the lists of three
     names for the filling of the offices intended for career labour judges shall be prepared by
     the tenured togated Justices.
     Paragraph 3 – The law shall make provisions for the powers of the Superior Labour
     Court.
     Article 112. There shall be at least one Regional Labour Court in each state and in the
     Federal District, and the law shall institute the Boards of Conciliation and Judgement,
     allowing, in districts where such boards are not instituted, for the attribution of their
     jurisdiction to judges.
     Article 113. The law shall regulate the constitution, installation, jurisdiction, powers,
     guarantees and conditions of exercise of the bodies of Labour Justice, preserving the
     parity of representation of workers and employers.
     Article 114. The Labour Justice has the power to conciliate and judge individual and
     collective disputes between workers and employers, comprising entities of public
     international law and of the direct and indirect public administration of the
     municipalities, of the Federal District, of the states and of the Union, and, under the terms
     of the law, other disagreements arising from labour relations, as well as litigations which
     originate in the compliance with its own decisions, including those of a collective nature.
     Paragraph 1 – If collective negotiations are unsuccessful, the parties may elect arbitrators.
     Paragraph 2 – If any of the parties refuses negotiation or arbitration, the respective unions
     may file a collective labour suit, and Labour Courts may establish regulations and
     conditions, respecting the minimum conventional and legal provisions for the protection
     of labour.
     Article 115. The Regional Labour Courts shall be composed of judges appointed by the
     President of the Republic, two-thirds of which shall be tenured togated judges and onethird
     shall be temporary judges representing professional categories, observing, among
     togated judges, the proportions established in article 111, Paragraph 1, I.
     Sole paragraph – The judges of the Regional Labour Courts shall be:
185. labour judges, chosen by promotion, alternately, for seniority and merit:
186. lawyers and members of the Labour Public Prosecution, observing the provisions of
     article 94;
187. temporary judges nominated in lists of three names by the boards of direction of the
     federations and labour unions having their territorial base in the region.
     Article 116. A Board of Conciliation and Judgement shall be composed of a labour judge,
     who shall preside over it, and of two temporary judges representing employees and
     employers.
     Sole paragraph – The temporary judges of the Boards of Conciliation and Judgement shall
     be appointed by the President of the Regional Labour Court, under the terms of the law,
     with one renomination being allowed.
     Article 117. The term of office of the temporary judges in all instances is three years.
     Sole paragraph – The temporary judges shall have substitutes.
     SECTION VI – ELECTORAL COURTS AND JUDGES
     Article 118. The following are the bodies of Electoral Justice:
188. the Superior Electoral Court;
189. the Regional Electoral Courts;
190. the Electoral Judges;
191. the Electoral Boards.
     Article 119. The Superior Electoral Court shall be composed of a minimum of seven
     members chosen,
192. through election, by secret vote:
193. three judges from among the Justices of the Supreme Federal Court;
194. two judges from among the Justices of the Superior Court of Justice;
195. through appointment by the President of the Republic, two judges from among six
     lawyers of notable juridical learning and good moral repute, nominated by the Supreme
     Federal Court.
     Sole paragraph – The Superior Electoral Court shall elect its President and Vice-President
     from among the Justices of the Supreme Federal Court, and its Electoral Corregidor from
     among the Justices of the Superior Court of Justice.
     Article 120. There shall be a Regional Electoral Court in the capital of each state and in
     the Federal District.
     Paragraph 1 – The Regional Electoral Courts shall be composed:
196. through election, by secret vote:
197. of two judges chosen from among the judges of the Court of Justice:
198. of two judges chosen by the Court of Justice from among court judges;
199. of a judge of the Federal Regional Court with its seat in the capital of a state or in the
     Federal District, or, in the absence thereof, of a federal judge chosen in any case by the
     respective Federal Regional Court;
200. through appointment by the President of the Republic, of two judges nominated by
     the Court of Justice from among six lawyers of notable juridical learning and good moral
     repute.
     Paragraph 2 – The Regional Electoral Court shall elect its President and Vice-President
     from among its judges.
     Article 121. A supplementary law shall provide for the organization and competence of
     the electoral courts, judges and boards.
     Paragraph 1 – The members of the courts, the court judges and the members of the
     electoral boards, while in office and insofar as applicable to them, shall enjoy full
     guarantees and shall be non-removable.
     Paragraph 2 – The Judges of the Electoral Courts, except for a justified reason, shall serve
     for a minimum of two years, and never for more than two consecutive two-year periods,
     and their substitutes shall be chosen at the same time and through the same procedure, in
     equal numbers for each category.
     Paragraph 3 – The decisions of the Superior Electoral Court are unappealable, save those
     which are contrary to this Constitution and those denying habeas corpus or writs of
     mandamus.
     Paragraph 4 – Decisions of the Regional Electoral Courts may only be appealed against
     when
201. they are rendered against an express provision of this Constitution or of a law:
202. there is a divergence in the interpretation of a law between two or more electoral
     courts;
203. they relate to ineligibility or issuance of certificates of electoral victory in federal or
     state elections;
204. they annul certificates of electoral victory or decree the loss of federal or state
     elective offices
205. they deny habeas corpus, writs of mandamus, habeas data or writs of injunction.
     SECTION VII – MILITARY COURTS AND JUDGES
     Article 122. The following are the bodies of Military Justice:
206. the Superior Military Court;
207. the Military Courts and Judges instituted by law.
     Article 123. The Superior Military Court shall be composed of fifteen life Justices,
     appointed by the President of the Republic, after their nomination has been approved by
     the Federal Senate, three of which shall be chosen from among General officers of the
     Navy, four from among General officers of the Army, three from among General officers
     of the Air Force, all of them in active service and in the highest rank of the career, and
     five from among civilians.
     Sole paragraph – The civil justices shall be chosen by the President of the Republic from
     among Brazilians over thirty-five years of age, as follows:
208. three from among lawyers of notable juridical learning and spotless conduct, with
     over ten years of effective professional activity;
209. two, by equal choice, from among auditor judges and members of the Public
     Prosecution of the Military Justice.
     Article 124. The Military Courts have the competence to carry out legal proceeding and
     trial of the military crimes defined by law.
     Sole paragraph – The law shall make provisions for the organization, operation and
     competence of the Military Courts.
     SECTION VIII – COURTS AND JUDGES OF THE STATES
     Article 125. The states shall organize their judicial system, observing the principles
     established in this Constitution.
     Paragraph 1 – The competence of the courts shall be defined in the Constitution of the
     state, and the law of judicial organization shall be the initiative of the Court of Justice.
     Paragraph 2 – The states have the competence to institute actions of unconstitutionality of
     state or municipal laws or normative acts in the light of the Constitution of the state, it
     being forbidden to attribute legitimation to act to a sole body.
     Paragraph 3 – By proposal of the Court of Justice, a state law may create the state
     Military Justice, constituted, at first instance, by the Councils of Justice and, at second
     instance, by the Court of Justice itself, or by the Court of Military Justice in those states
     in which the military police troops count more than twenty thousand members.
     Paragraph 4 – The state Military Courts have the competence to institute legal proceeding
     and trial of military policemen and military firemen for the military crimes defined in
     law, and the competent court shall decide upon the loss of post or rank of officers and of
     the grade of servicemen.
     Article 126. For the settlement of conflicts relating to land property, the Court of Justice
     shall designate special level judges, with exclusive competence for agrarian matters.
     Sole paragraph – Whenever efficient jurisdictional service requires it, the judge shall go
     personally to the site of the litigation.
     CHAPTER IV – THE FUNCTIONS
     ESSENTIAL TO JUSTICE
     SECTION I – THE PUBLIC PROSECUTION
     Article 127. The Public Prosecution is a permanent institution, essential to the
     jurisdictional function of the State, and it is its duty to defend the juridical order, the
     democratic regime and the inalienable social and individual interests.
     Paragraph 1 – Unity, indivisibility and functional independence are institutional principles
     of the Public Prosecution.
     Paragraph 2 – The Public Prosecution is ensured of functional and administrative
     autonomy, and it may, observing the provisions of article 169, propose to the Legislative
     Power the creation and extinction of its offices and auxiliary services, filling them
     through a civil service entrance examination of tests or of tests and presentation of
     academic and professional credentials; the law shall provide for its organization and
     operation.
     Paragraph 3 – The Public Prosecution shall prepare its budget proposal within the limits
     established in the law of budgetary directives.
     Article 128. The Public Prosecution comprises:
210. the Public Prosecution of the Union, which includes:
211. the Federal Public Prosecution;
212. the Labour Public Prosecution;
213. the Military Public Prosecution;
214. the Public Prosecution of the Federal District and the Territories
215. the Public Prosecutions of the states.
     Paragraph 1 – The head of the Public Prosecution of the Union is the Attorney-General of
     the Republic, appointed by the President of the Republic from among career members
     over thirty-five years of age, after his name has been approved by the absolute majority
     of the members of the Federal Senate, for a term of office of two years, reappointment
     being allowed.
     Paragraph 2 – The removal of the Attorney-General of the Republic, on the initiative of
     the President of the Republic, shall be subject to prior authorization bv the absolute
     majority of the Federal Senate.
     Paragraph 3 – The Public Prosecutions of the stales. of the Federal District and the
     Territories shall prepare a list of three names from among career members, under the
     terms of the respective law, for the selection of their Attorney-General, who shall be
     appointed by the Head of the Executive Power for a term of office of two years, one
     reappointment being allowed.
     Paragraph 4 – The Attorneys-General in the states, in the Federal District and the
     Territories may be removed from office by deliberation of the absolute majority of the
     Legislative Power, under the terms of the respective supplementary law.
     Paragraph 5 – Supplementary laws of the Union and of the states, which may be proposed
     by the respective Attorneys-General, shall establish the organization, the duties and the
     statute of each Public Prosecution, observing, as regards their members:
216. the following guarantees:
217. life tenure, after two years in office, with loss of office only by a final and
     unappealable judicial decision;
218. irremovability, save for reason of public interest, through decision of the
     competent collegiate body of the Public Prosecution, by the vote of two-thirds of its
     members, full defense being ensured;
219. irreducibility of pay, observing, as regards the remuneration, the provisions of
     articles 37, XI, 150, II, 153, III, 153, paragraph 2, I;
220. the following prohibitions:
221. receiving, on any account or for any reason, fees, percentages or court costs;
222. practicing the legal profession;
223. participating in a commercial company, under the terms of the law.
224. exercising, even when on paid availability, any other public function, except for a
     teaching position;
225. engaging in political or party activities, save for the exceptions established in the
     law.
     Article 129. The following are institutional functions of the Public Prosecution:
226. to initiate, exclusively, public criminal prosecution, under the terms of the law;
227. to ensure effective respect by the Public Authorities and by the services of public
     relevance for the rights guaranteed in this Constitution, taking the action required to
     guarantee such rights;
228. to institute civil investigation and public civil suit to protect public and social
     property, the environment and other diffuse and collective interests;
229. to institute action of unconstitutionality or representation for purposes of intervention
     by the Union or by the states, in the cases established in this Constitution;
230. to defend judicially the rights and interests of the Indian populations;
231. to issue notifications in administrative procedures within its competence, requesting
     information and documents to support them, under the terms of the respective
     supplementary law;
232. to exercise external control over police activities, under the terms of the
     supplementary law mentioned in the previous article:
233. to request investigatory procedures and the institution of police investigation,
     indicating the legal grounds of its procedural acts;
234. to exercise other functions which may be conferred upon it, provided that they are
     compatible with its purpose, with judicial representation and judicial consultation for
     public entities being forbidden.
     Paragraph 1 – Legitimation by the Public Prosecution for the civil actions set forth in this
     article shall not preclude those of third parties in the same cases, according to the
     provisions of this Constitution and af the law
     Paragraph 2 – The functions of Public Prosecution may only be exercised by career
     members, who must reside in the judicial district of their respective assignment.
     Paragraph 3 – Admission into the career shall take place by means of a civil service
     entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials,
     ensuring participation by the Brazilian Bar Association in such examination, and
     observing, for appointment, the order of classification.
     Paragraph 4 – The provisions of article 93, II and VI shall apply to the Public Prosecution,
     where appropriate.
     Article 130. The provisions of this section concerning rights, prohibitions and form of
     investiture apply to the members of the Public Prosecution before the Courts of Accounts.
     SECTION II – THE ADVOCACY-GENERAL OF THE UNION
     Article 131. The Advocacy-General of the Union is the institution which, either directly
     or through a subordinated agency, represents the Union judicially or extrajudicially, and
     it is responsible, under the terms of the supplementary law which provides for its
     organization and operation, for the activities of judicial consultation and assistance to the
     Executive Power.
     Paragraph l – The Advocacy-General of the Union is headed by the Advocate-General of
     the Union, freely appointed by the President of the Republic from among citizens over
     thirty-five years of age, of notable juridical learning and spotless reputation.
     Paragraph 2 – Admission into the initial classes of the careers of the institution dealt with
     in this article shall take place by means of a civil service entrance examination of tests
     and presentation of academic and professional credentials.
     Paragraph 3 – In the execution of receivable taxes of a tributary nature, the Union shall be
     represented by the office of the Attorney-General of the Public Finances, observing the
     provisions of the law.
     Article 132. The Prosecutors of the states and of the Federal District shall exercise
     judicial representation and judicial consultation for their respective federated units,
     organized in a career, admission into which shall depend on a civil service entrance
     examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials, observing
     the provisions of article 135.
     SECTION III – THE PUBLIC ADVOCACY AND THE PUBLIC LEGAL
     DEFENSE
     Article 133. The lawyer is indispensable to the administration of justice and is inviolable
     for his acts or manifestations in the exercise of his profession, within the limits of the
     law.
     Article 134. The Public Legal Defense is an essential institution to the jurisdictional
     function of the State and is responsible for the judicial guidance and the defense, in all
     levels, of the needy, under the terms of article 5, LXXIV.
     Sole paragraph – A supplementary law shall organize the Public Legal Defense of the
     Union, of the Federal District and the Territories and shall prescribe general rules for its
     organization in the states, into career offices filled, in the initial class, by means of a civil
     service entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional
     credentials, with the guarantee of irremovability being ensured to its members and the
     practice of advocacy beyond the institutional attributions being forbidden.
     Article 135. The principle of article 37, XII, and article 39, paragraph I apply to the
     careers regulated in this title.

TITLE V – THE DEFENSE OF THE STATE AND OF THE DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS

CHAPTER I – THE STATE OF
DEFENSE AND THE STATE OF SIEGE
SECTION I – THE STATE OF DEFENSE
Article 136. The President of the Republic may, after hearing the Council of the Republic
and the National Defense Council, decree a state of defense to preserve or to promptly reestablish,
in specific and restricted locations, the public order or the social peace
threatened by serious and imminent institutional instability or affected by major natural
calamities.
Paragraph 1 – The decree instituting the state of defense shall determine the period of its
duration, shall specify the areas to be encompassed and shall indicate, within the terms
and limitations of the law, the coercive measures to be in force from among the
following:
1. restrictions to the rights of:
1. assembly, even if held within associations;
2. secrecy of correspondence;
3. secrecy of telegraph and telephone communication;
2. in the event of a public calamity, occupation and temporary use of public property
and services, the Union being liable for the resulting damages and C osts
Paragraph 2 – The state of defense shall not exceed thirty days and it may be extended
once for an identical period if the reasons that justified its decreeing persist.
Paragraph 3 – During the period in which the state of defense is in force:
1. arrest for a crime against the State, determined by the party executing the measure,
shall be immediately communicated by such party to the competent judge, who shall
remit it if it is illegal, it being the arrested person’s choice to request examination of
corpus delicti from the police authority;
2. the communication shall be accompanied by a statement by the authority as to the
physical and mental state of the arrested person at the time of the filing of the charges;
3. the imprisonment or detention of any person shall not exceed ten days, unless
authorized by the Judicial Power;
4. incommunicability of the arrested person is forbidden.
Paragraph 4 – Upon decreeing a state of defense or extension thereof, the President of the
Republic shall, within twenty-four hours, submit the act with the respective justification
to the National Congress, which shall decide by absolute majority.
Paragraph 5 – If the National Congress is in recess, it shall be called extraordinarily
within five days.
Paragraph 6 – The National Congress shall examine the decree within ten days as from
receipt thereof, and shall remain in operation as long as the state of defense is in force
Paragraph 7 – If the decree is rejected, the state of defense shall cease immediately.
SECTION II – THE STATE OF SIEGE
Article 137. The President of the Republic may, after hearing the Council of the Republic
and the National Defense Council request authorization from the National Congress to
decree the state of seize in the event of:
1. serious disturbance with nationwide effects or occurrence of facts that evidence the
ineffectiveness of a measure taken during the state of defense:
2. declaration of state of war or response to foreign armed aggression.
Sole paragraph – The President of the Republic shall, on requesting authorization to
decree the state of siege or to extend it, submit the reasons that determine such request,
and the National Congress shall decide by absolute majority.
Article 138. The decree of the state of siege shall specify the period of its duration, the
rules required to implement it and the constitutional guarantees that are to be suspended
and, after it is published, the President of the Republic shall designate the executor of the
specific measures and the areas encompassed.
Paragraph 1 – In the event of article 137, I, the state of siege may not be decreed for more
than thirty days nor may each extension exceed such period; in the event of item II, it
may be decreed for the entire period of the war or foreign armed aggression.
Paragraph 2 – If authorization to decree the state of siege is requested during
parliamentary recess, the President of the Federal Senate shall immediately summon an
extraordinary session of the National Congress to convene within five days in order to
examine the act.
Paragraph 3 – The National Congress shall remain in session until the end of the coercive
measures.
Article 139. During the period in which the state of siege decreed under article 137, I, is
in force, only the following measures may be taken against persons:
1. obligation to remain at a specific place;
2. detention in a building not intended for persons accused of or convicted for common
crimes;
3. restrictions regarding the inviolability of correspondence, the secrecy of
communications, the rendering of information and the freedom of press, radio
broadcasting and television, as established bv law;
4. suspension of freedom of assembly;
5. home search and seizure;
6. intervention in public utility companies;
7. requisitioning of property.
Sole paragraph – The broadcasting of speeches made by Congressmen in their Legislative
Houses is not included in the restrictions of item III, if authorized by the respective
Directing Board.
SECTION III – GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 140. The Directing Board of the National Congress shall, after hearing the party
leaders, designate a Committee comprised of five of its members to monitor and
supervise the implementation of the measures concerning the state of defense and the
state of siege.
Article 141. Once the state of defense or the state of siege ceases, its effects shall also
cease, without prejudice to liability for illicit acts performed by the executors or agents
thereof.
Sole paragraph – As soon as the state of defense or the state of siege ceases, the measures
applied during the period while it is in force shall be reported by the President of the
Republic in a message to the National Congress, with specification and justification of
the actions taken, with the listing of the names af those affected and indication of the
restrictions applied.
CHAPTER II – THE ARMED FORCES
*Article 142. The Armed Forces, comprised of the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, are
permanent and regular national institutions, organized on the basis of hierarchy and
discipline, under the supreme authority of the President of the Republic, and are intended
for the defense of the Country, for the guarantee of the constitutional powers, and, on the
initiative of any of these, of law and order.
Paragraph 1 – A supplementary law shall establish the general rules to be adopted in the
organization, training and use of the Armed Forces.
Paragraph 2 – Habeas-corpus shall not apply to military disciplinary punishments.
Paragraph 3 – The members of the Armed Forces are called military, and the following
provisions apply to them, in addition to other provisions that the law may establish:
1. the ranks, with the prerogatives, rights and duties inherent to them, are awarded by
the President of the Republic and are guaranteed in full to officers in active service, those
of the reserve or in retirement, and such officers have exclusive rights to military titles
and posts, and together with the other members, to the use of the uniforms of the Armed
Forces;
2. a military in active service who takes office in a permanent civil public position or
job shall be transferred to the reserve, under the terms of the law;
3. a military in active service who, under the terms of the law, takes office in a nonelective,
temporary civil public position, job or function, even if in the indirect
administration, shall be put on leave and, as long as he remains in this situation he may
only be promoted by seniority, and his period of service shall be counted only for that
promotion and for transfer to the reserve, and after two years, whether continuous or not,
away from active service, he shall be transferred to the reserve, under the terms of the
law;
4. the military are forbidden to join unions and to strike;
5. while in actual service, the military are forbidden to belong to political parties;
6. an officer shall only lose his post and rank if he is judged unworthy of or
incompatible with the dignity of officership by decision of a permanent military court, in
times of peace, or of a special court, in times of war;
7. an officer sentenced in a common or military court by means of an unappealable
judgment to imprisonment for more than two years shall be submitted to trial as provided
in the preceding item;
8. the provisions of article 7, items VIII, XII, XVII, XVIII, XIX, and XXV, and of
article 37, items XI, XIII, XIV and XV, apply to the military;
9. the provisions of article 40, paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 apply to the military and their
pensioners;
10. the law shall provide for admission to the Armed Forces, age limits, tenure, and
other conditions for a military to be retired, the rights, duties, remuneration, prerogatives
and other circumstances which are specific to the military, the special characteristics of
their activities being taken into account, including those carried our by virtue of
international agreements and of war.

• CA 18/98
  Article 143. Military service is compulsory as set forth by law.
  Paragraph 1 – It is within the competence of the Armed Forces, according to the law, to
  assign an alternative service to those who, in times of peace, after being enlisted, claim
  imperative of conscience, which shall be understood as originating in religious creed and
  philosophical or political belief, for exemption from essentially military activities.
  Paragraph 2 – Women and clergymen are exempt from compulsory military service in
  times of peace, but are subject to other duties assigned to them by law.
  CHAPTER III – PUBLIC SECURITY
  Article 144. Public security, the duty of the State and the right and responsibility of all, is
  exercised to preserve public order and the safety of persons and property, by means of the
  following agencies:

1. federal police;
2. federal highway police;
3. federal railway police,
4. civil polices.
5. military polices and military fire brigades.
   Paragraph 1 – The federal police, instituted by law as a permanent body and structured
   into a career are limited to
6. investigate criminal offenses against the political and the social order or to the
   detriment of property, services and interests of the Union and of its autonomous
   government entities and public companies, as well as other offenses with interstate or
   international effects and requiring uniform repression as the law shall establish;
7. to prevent and repress the illegal traffic of narcotics and like drugs, as well as
   smuggling, without prejudice to action by the treasury authorities and other government
   agencies in their respective areas of competence;
8. to exercise the functions of maritime, air and border police.
9. to exercise, exclusively, the functions of criminal police of the Union.
   Paragraph 2 – The federal highway police are a permanent body structured into a career
   and intended, according to the law, to patrol ostensibly the federal highways.
   Paragraph 3 – The federal railway police are a permanent body structured into a career
   and intended, according to the law, to patrol ostensibly the federal railways.
   Paragraph 4 – It is incumbent upon the civil police, directed by career police comissioners
   and except for the competence of the Union, to exercise the functions of criminal police
   and to investigate criminal offenses, with the exception of the military ones.
   Paragraph 5 – It is within the competence of the military polices the ostensive policing
   and the maintenance of the public order; it is incumbent upon the military fire brigades,
   in addition to the duties defined by law, to carry out activities of civil defense.
   Paragraph 6 – The military polices and military fire brigades, ancillary forces and reserve
   of the Army, are subject, together with the civil police, to the Governors of the states, of
   the Federal District and of the territories
   Paragraph 7 – The law shall regulate the organization and operation of the agencies
   responsible for public security in such a manner as to guarantee the efficiency of their
   activities.
   Paragraph 8 – The municipalities may organize municipal guards to protect their property,
   services and facilities, as the law shall establish.

TITLE VI – TAXATION AND BUDGET

CHAPTER I – THE NATIONAL TAX
SYSTEM
SECTION I – GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Article 145. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities may
institute the following tributes:
1. taxes;
2. fees, by virtue of the exercise of police power or for the effective or potential use of
specific and divisible public services, rendered to the taxpayer or made available to him
3. benefit charges, resulting from public works.
Paragraph 1 – Whenever possible, taxes shall have an individual character and shall be
graded according to the economic capacity of the taxpayer, and the tax administration
may, especially to confer effectiveness upon such objectives, with due respect to
individual rights and under the terms of the law, identify the property, the incomes and
the economic activities of the taxpayer.
Paragraph 2 – Fees may not have the assessment basis reserved for taxes.
Article 146. A supplementary law shall:
1. provide for conflicts of competence concerning tax matters between the Union, the
states, the Federal District and the municipalities:
2. regulate the constitutional limitations on the power to tax;
3. establish general rules concerning tax legislation, especially with regard to:
1. the definition of tributes and their types, as well as, regarding the taxes specified
in this Constitution, the definition of the respective taxable events, assessment bases and
taxpayers:
2. tax liability, assessment, credit, limitation and laches;,
3. adequate tax treatment for the cooperative acts of cooperative associations.
Article 147. In a federal territory, state taxes are within the competence of the Union and,
if the territory is not divided into municipalities, also municipal taxes; municipal taxes are
within the competence of the Federal District.
Article 148. The Union may, by means of a supplementary law, institute compulsory
loans:
1. to meet extraordinary expenses resulting from public calamity, foreign war or the
imminence thereof;
2. in the case of public investment of an urgent nature and relevant national interest,
observing the provisions of article 150, III, b.
Sole paragraph – The use of funds deriving from a compulsory loan shall be linked to the
expense that justified the institution thereof.
Article 149. The Union shall have the exclusive competence to institute social
contributions regarding intervention in the economic order and the interest of categories
of employees or employers, as an instrument of its activity in the respective areas,
observing the provisions of articles 146, III, and 150, I and III, and without prejudice to
the provisions of article 195, paragraph 6, as regards the contributions mentioned in the
latter article.
Sole paragraph – The states, the Federal District and the municipalities may institute a
contribution payable by their employees to fund social security and assistance systems for
the benefit of the latter.
SECTION II – LIMITATIONS ON THE POWER TO TAX
Article 150. Without prejudice to any other guarantees ensured to the taxpayers, the
Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities are forbidden to:
1. impose or increase a tribute without a law to establish it;
2. institute unequal treatment. ent for taxpayers who are in an equivalent situation, it
being forbidden to establish any distinction by reason of professional occupation or
function performed by them, independently of the juridical designation of their incomes,
titles or rights;
3. collect tributes:
1. for taxable events that occurred before the law which instituted or increased such
tributes came into force;
2. in the same fiscal year in which the law which instituted or increased such
tributes was published;
4. use a tribute for the purpose of confiscation;
5. establish limitations on the circulation of persons or goods, by means of interstate or
intermunicipal tributes, except for the collection of toll fees for the use of highways
maintained by the Government;
6. institute taxes on:
1. the property, income or services of one another;
2. temples of any denomination;
3. the property, income or services of political parties, including their foundations,
of worker unions, of non-profit education and social assistance institutions, observing the
requirements of the law;
4. books, newspapers, periodicals and the paper intended for the printing thereof.
Paragraph 1 – The prohibition set forth in item III, b, shall not apply to the taxes provided
upon in articles 153, I, II, IV and V, and 154, II.
Paragraph 2 – The prohibition set forth in item VII a, extends to the autonomous
government agencies and to the foundations instituted and maintained by the
Government, as regards the property, income and services related to their essential
purposes or resulting therefrom.
Paragraph 3 – The prohibitions set forth in item VI, a, and in the preceding paragraph do
not apply to the property, income and services related to the exploitation of economic
activities governed by the regulations which apply to private undertakings, or in which
users pay consideration or prices or tariffs. nor exempt a promissory purchaser of real
property from the obligation to pay tax thereon.
Paragraph 4 – The prohibitions set forth in item VI, subitems b and c encompass only the
property, income and services related to the essential purposes of the entities mentioned
therein.
Paragraph 5 – The law shall determine measures for consumers to be informed about
taxes levied on goods and services.
Paragraph 6 – Any subsidy or exemption, reduction of assessment basis concession of
presumed credit, amnesty or remission, related to taxes, fees or contributions, may only
be granted by means of a specific federal, state or municipal law, which provides
exclusively for the above-enumerated matters or the corresponding tax, fee or
contribution, without prejudice to the provisions of article 155, paragraph 2, item XII, g.
Paragraph 7 – The law may impose upon the taxpayer the burden af the] payment of a tax
or contribution. s hose taxable event X ill occur later, the immediate and preferential
restitution of the amount paid being ensure;;? in case the presumed taxable event does nat
occur
Article 151. It is forbidden for the Union:
1. to institute a tribute which is not uniform throughout the entire national territory or
which implies a distinction or preference regarding a state, the Federal District or a
municipality to the detriment of another, it being allowed to grant tax incentives for the
purpose of promoting the balanced social and economic development of the various
regions of the country;
2. to tax income from public debt bonds of the states, of the Federal District and of the
municipalities, as well as the remuneration and earnings of the respective public agents,
at levels above those established for its own bonds and agents;
3. to institute exemptions from tributes within the powers of the states, of the Federal
District or of the municipalities.
Article 152. The states, the Federal District and the municipalities are forbidden to
establish a tax difference between goods and services of any nature, by reason of their
origin or destination.
SECTION III – FEDERAL TAXES
Article 153. The Union shall have the power to institute taxes on:
1. importation of foreign products;
2. exportation to other countries of national or nationalized products;
3. income and earnings of any nature; I
4. industrialized products;
5. credit, foreign exchange and insurance transactions, or transactions relating to bonds
or securities;
6. rural property;
7. large fortunes, under the terms of a supplementary law.
Paragraph l – The Executive Power may, observing the conditions and the limits
established in law, alter the rates of the taxes enumerated in items I, II, IV and V.
Paragraph 2 – The tax established in item III:
1. shall be based on the criteria of generality, universality and progressives, under the
terms of the law:
2. shall not be levied, under the terms and within the limits established in law, on
income deriving from retirement and pension paid by the social security system of the
Union, of the states, of the Federal District and of the municipalities, to a person over
sixty-five years of age, whose total income consists exclusively of work earnings.
Paragraph 3 – The tax established in item IV:
1. shall be selective, based on the essentiality of the product;
2. shall be non-cumulative, and the tax due in each transaction shall be compensated by
the amount charged in previous transactions
3. shall not be levied on industrialized products intended for export.
Paragraph 4 – The tax established in item VI shall have its rates determined in such a
manner as to discourage the retention of unproductive real property and shall not be
levied on small tracts of land, as defined in law, when a proprietor who owns no other
real property explores them by himself or with his family.
Paragraph 5 – Gold, when defined in law as a financial asset or an exchange instrument, is
subject exclusively to the tax established in item V of the caption of the present article,
due on the original transaction; the minimum rate shall be one per cent, and the
transference of the amount collected is ensured under the following terms:
1. thirty per cent to the state, the Federal District or the territory, depending on the
origin;
2. seventy per cent to the municipality of origin.
Article 154. The Union may institute:
1. by means of a supplementary law, taxes not instituted in the preceding article,
provided that they are non-cumulative and not founded on a taxable event or an
assessment basis reserved for the taxes specified in this Constitution;
2. in the imminence or in the event of foreign war, extraordinary taxes, encompassed or
not by its power to tax, which shall be gradually suppressed when the causes for their
institution have ceased.
SECTION IV – STATE AND FEDERAL DISTRICT TAXES
Article 155. The states and the Federal District shall have the competence to institute
taxes on:
1. transfer by death and donation of any property or rights:
2. transactions relating to the circulation of goods and to the rendering of interstate and
intermunicipal transportation services and services of communication, even when such
transactions and renderings begin abroad;
3. ownership of automotive vehicles.
Paragraph 1 – The tax established in item I:
1. regarding real property and the respective rights, is within the competence of the
state where the property is located, or of the Federal District;
2. regarding bonds, titles and credits, is within the competence of the Federal District or
of the state where the probate or enrollment is processed, or where the donor is
domiciled;
3. a supplementary law shall regulate the competence for the institution of such tax:
1. if the donor is domiciled or residing abroad;
2. if the deceased owned property, was resident or domiciled or had his probate
processed abroad;
4. the Federal Senate shall establish the maximum rates for such tax.
Paragraph 2 – The tax established in item II shall observe the following:
1. it shall be non-cumulative, and the tax due in each transaction concerning the
circulation of goods or rendering of services shall be compensated by the amount charged
in the previous transactions by the same or by another state or by the Federal District;
2. exemption or non-levy, except as otherwise determined in the law
1. shall not imply credit for compensation relative to the amount due in the
subsequent transactions or renderings of services;
2. shall cause the annulment of the credit for the previous transactions;
3. it may be selective, based on the essentiality of the goods or services;
4. a resolution of the Federal Senate, on the initiative of the President of the Republic or
of one-third of the Senators, approved by the absolute majority of its members, shall
establish the rates that apply to interstate and export transactions and rendering of
services;
5. the Federal Senate may:
1. establish minimum rates for domestic transactions, by means of a resolution on
the initiative of one-third and approved by the absolute majority of its members;
2. establish maximum rates for the same transactions to settle a specific conflict
involving the interest of the states, by means of a resolution on the initiative of the
absolute majority and approved by two-thirds of its members:
6. unless otherwise determined by the states and the Federal District, under the terms of
the provisions of item XII, g, the domestic rates for transactions concerning the
circulation of goods and the rendering of services may not be lower than those
established for interstate transactions;
7. the following shall be adopted for transactions and rendering of goods and services to
end-users located in another state
1. the interstate rate, when it is incumbent upon the recipient to pay that tax
2. the internal rate, when it is not incumbent upon the recipient to pay that tax;
8. in the case of subitem a of the preceding item, the tax corresponding to the difference
between the internal and the interstate rate shall be attributed to the state where the
recipient is located
9. it shall also be levied
1. on the entry of goods imported from abroad, even in the case of goods intended
for consumption or for the fixed assets of the establishment, as well as on services
rendered abroad, and the tax shall be attributed to the state where the establishment
receiving the goods or services is located;
2. on the total value of the transaction, when goods are supplied with services not
included in the power to tax of the municipalities
10. it shall not be levied
1. on transactions transferring industrialized products abroad excluding semifinished
products as defined in a supplementary law
2. on transactions transferring petroleum, including lubricants liquid and gaseous
fuels derived therefrom, and electric energy to other states
3. on gold, in the cases defined in article 153, paragraph 5
11. its assessment basis shall not include the amount of the tax on industrialized
products when the transaction carried out bets ween taxpayers and concerning a product
intended for industrialization or sale represents a taxable event for both taxes
12. A supplementary law shall
1. define its taxpayers;
2. provide for tax substitution;
3. regulate the system of tax compensation
4. establish, for purposes of collection of the tax and definition of the responsible
establishment, the location of the transactions concerning the circulation of goods and the
rendering of services;
5. exclude from levy of the tax, in exports to other countries, services and other
products other than those mentioned in item X, a;
6. provide for the event of maintenance of a credit for services and goods remitted
to another state and exported to other countries;
7. regulate the manner in which, through deliberation by the states and the Federal
District, tax exemptions, incentives and benefits shall be granted and revoked.
Paragraph 3 – With-the exception of the taxes mentioned in item II of the caption of the
present article, and article 153, I and II, no other tribute may be levied on transactions
concerning electric energy, telecomrnunications services, petroleum by-products, fuels
and minerals of the country.
SECTION V – MUNICIPAL TAXES
Article 156. The municipalities shall have the competence to institute taxes on:
1. urban buildings and urban land property;
2. inter vivos transfer, on any account, by onerous acts, of real property, by nature or
physical accession, and of real rights to property, except for real security, as well as the
assignment of rights to the purchase thereof;
3. services of any nature not included in article 155, II, as defined in a supplementary
law.
Paragraph 1 – The tax set forth in item I may be progressive, under the terms of a
municipal law, in order to ensure achievement of the social function of the property.
Paragraph 2 – The tax set forth in item II:
1. shall not be levied on the transfer of goods or rights incorporated into the assets of a
corporate body to pay up its capital, nor on the transfer of goods or rights resulting from
the merger, incorporation, division or dissolution of corporate bodies, unless, in such
cases, the predominant activity of the purchaser is the purchase and sale of such goods or
rights, the lease of real property or leasing;
2. is within the competence of the municipality where the property is located.
Paragraph 3 – As regards the tax established in item III, a supplementary law shall:
1. establish its maximum rates;
2. exclude exportations of services to other countries from levy of the said tax.
SECTION VI – TAX REVENUE SHARING
Article 157. The following shall be assigned to the states and to the Federal District:
1. the proceeds from the collection of the federal tax on income and earnings of any
nature, levied at source on income paid on any account by them, by their autonomous
government entities and by the foundations they institute and maintain;
2. twenty per cent of the proceeds from the collection of the tax that the Union may
institute in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by article 154, I.
Article 158. The following shall be assigned to the municipalities:
1. the proceeds from the collection of the federal tax on income and earnings of any
nature, levied at source on income paid on any account by them, by their autonomous
government entities and by the foundations they institute and maintain;
2. fifty per cent of the proceeds from the collection of the federal tax on rural property,
concerning real property located in the municipalities;
3. fifty per cent of the proceeds from the collection of the state tax on the ownership of
automotive vehicles licensed in the municipalities;
4. twenty-five per cent of the proceeds from the collection of the state tax on
transactions regarding the circulation of goods and on rendering of interstate and
intermunicipal transportation services and services of communication.
Sole paragraph – The revenue portions assigned to the municipalities, as mentioned in
item IV, shall be credited in accordance with the following criteria:
1. at least three-fourths, in proportion to the value added in the transactions regarding
the circulation of goods and the rendering of services carried out in the territory of the
municipalities;
2. up to one-quarter, in accordance with the provisions of a state law or, in the case of
the territories, of a federal law.
Article l59. The Union shall remit
1. of the proceeds from the collection of taxes on income and earnings of any nature
and on industrialized products, forty-seven per cent as follows:
1. twenty-one and a half of one per cent to the Revenue Sharing Fund of the States
and of the Federal District;
2. twenty-two and a half of one per cent to the Revenue Sharing Fund of the
Municipalities;
3. three per cent, for application in programs to finance the productive sector of the
North, Northeast and Centre-West Regions, through their regional financial institutions,
in accordance with regional development plans, the semi-arid area of the Northeast being
ensured of half of the funds intended for that Region, as provided by law;
2. of the proceeds from the collection of the tax on industrialized products, ten per cent
to the states and to the Federal District, in proportion to the value of the respective
exportations of industrialized products.
Paragraph 1 – For purposes of calculating the amount to be remitted in accordance with
the provisions in item I, the portion of the collected tax on income and earnings of any
nature assigned to the states, to the Federal District and to the municipalities shall be
excluded, as provided by articles 157, I, and 158, I.
Paragraph 2 – No federated unit may be allocated a portion in excess of twenty per cent of
the amount referred to in item II, and any excess shall be distributed among the other
participants, maintaining, for the latter, the apportionment criterion established therein.
Paragraph 3 – The states shall remit twenty-five per cent of the funds they may receive as
provided by item II to the respective municipalities, observing the criteria established in
article 158, sole paragraph, I and II.
Article 160. It is forbidden to withhold or to make any restriction to the remittance and
use of the funds assigned in this section to the states, to the Federal District and to the
municipalities, including any tax additions and increases.
Sole paragraph – The prohibition mentioned in the present article does not prevent the
Union and the states from remitting the funds on condition of payment of their credits,
including those of the autonomous government agencies.
Article 161. A supplementary law shall:
1. define the added value for the purposes provided by article 158, sole paragraph, I;
2. establish rules for the remittance of the funds referred to in article 159, especially the
criteria for the sharing of the funds set forth in its item I, seeking to promote social and
economic balance among states and among municipalities;
3. provide for the monitoring, by the beneficiaries, of the calculation of the quotas and
release of the participations set forth in articles 157, 158 and 159.
Sole paragraph – The Federal Court of Accounts shall calculate the quotas referring to the
participation funds mentioned in item II.
Article 162. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall
announce, on or before the last day of the month following that of collection, the amounts
of each of the tributes collected, the funds received. the tax sums remitted and to be
remitted and the numerical expression of the apportionment criteria.
Sole paragraph – The data announced by the Union shall be discriminated by state and by
municipality; those of the states, by municipality.
CHAPTER II – PUBLIC FINANCES
SECTION I – GENERAL RULES
Article 163. A supplementary law shall make provisions for:
1. public finances;
2. foreign and domestic public debt, including the debt of the autonomous government
agencies, foundations and other entities controlled bv the Government:
3. granting of guarantees by government entities; I
4. issuance and redemption of public debt bonds;
5. supervision of financial institutions;
6. foreign exchange transactions carried out by bodies and agencies of the Union, of the
states, of the Federal District and of the municipalities;
7. compatibility of the functions of the official credit institutions of the Union,
safeguarding all the characteristics and full operational conditions of those intended for
regional development.
Article 164. The competence of the Union to issue currency shall be exercised
exclusively bv the central bank.
Paragraph 1 – It is forbidden for the central bank to grant, either directly or indirectly,
loans to the National Treasury and to any body or agency which is not a financial
institution.
Paragraph 2 – The central bank may purchase and sell bonds issued by the National
Treasury, for the purpose of regulating the money supply or the interest rate.
Paragraph 3 – The cash assets of the Union shall be deposited at the central bank, those of
the states, of the Federal District, of the municipalities and of the bodies or agencies of
the Government and of the companies controlled by the same, at official financial
institutions, excepting the cases established in law.
SECTION II – BUDGETS
Article 165. Laws of the initiative of the Executive Power shall establish:
1. the pluriannual plan;
2. the budgetary directives;
3. the annual budgets.
Paragraph l – The law which institutes the pluriannual plan shall establish, on a regional
basis, the directives, objectives and targets of the federal public administration for the
capital expenditures and other expenses resulting therefrom and for those regarding
continuous programmes.
Paragraph 2 – The law of budgetary directives shall comprise the targets and priorities of
the federal public administration, including the capital expenditures for the subsequent
fiscal year, shall guide the drawing up of the annual budget law, shall make provisions
for alterations in tax legislation and shall establish the investment policy for the official
development financing agencies.
Paragraph 3 – The Executive Power shall, within thirty days after the closing of each twomonth
period, publish a summarized report on budget implementation.
Paragraph 4 – The national, regional and sectorial plans and programmes set forth in this
Constitution shall be drawn up in compliance with the pluriannual plan and shall be
examined by the National Congress.
Paragraph 5 – The annual budget law shall include:
1. the fiscal budget regarding the Powers of the Union? their funds, bodies and entities
of the direct and indirect administration, including foundations instituted and maintained
by the Government:
2. the investment budget of companies in which the Union directly or indirectly holds
the majority of the voting capital;
3. the social welfare budget, comprising all direct and indirect administration entitles or
bodies connected with social security, as well as funds and foundations instituted and
maintained bv the Government
Paragraph 6 – The budget bill shall be accompanied by a regionalized statement on the
effect on revenues and expenses, deriving from exemptions, amnesties, remissions,
subsidies and benefits of a financial, tributary and credit nature.
Paragraph 7 – The functions of the budgets set forth in paragraph 5, 1 and 11, of the
present article, compatible with the pluriannual plan, shall include the function of
reducing interregional inequalities, according to populational criteria.
Paragraph 8 – The annual budget law shall not contain any provision extraneous to a
forecast of revenues and to the establishment of expenses, such prohibition not including
authorization to open supplementary credits and to contract credit transactions, even if by
advance of revenues, under the terms of the law.
Paragraph 9 – A supplementary law shall:
1. make provisions for the fiscal year, effectiveness, terms, drawing up and
organization of the pluriannual plan, of the law of budgetary directives and of the annual
budget law;
2. establish rules for the financial and property management of the direct and indirect
administration, as well as conditions for the institution and operation of funds.
Article 166. The bills regarding the pluriannual plan, the budgetary directives, the annual
budget and the additional credits shall be examined by the two Houses of the National
Congress, in accordance with their common regulations.
Paragraph 1 – It is incumbent upon a permanent joint committee of Senators and Deputies
to:
1. examine and issue its opinion on the bills referred to in the present article and on the
accounts submitted annually by the President of the Republic;
2. examine and issue its opinion on the national, regional and sectorial plans and
programmes established in this Constitution, and exercise budgetary monitoring and
supervision, without affecting the operation of the other committees of the National
Congress and of its Houses, created in accordance with article 58.
Paragraph 2 – Amendments shall be submitted to the joint committee, which shall report
on them. and shall be examined, in accordance with the regulations, by the Plenary
Session of the two Houses of the National Congress.
Paragraph 3 – Amendments to the bill of the annual budget or to the bills which modify it
may only be approved if:
1. they are compatible with the pluriannual plan and with the law of budgetary
directives;
2. they specify the necessary funds, allowing only those resulting from the annulment
of expenses, and excluding those which apply to:
1. allocations for personnel and their charges;
2. debt servicing;
3. constitutional tax transfers to the states, the municipalities and the Federal
District; or
3. they are related:
1. to the correction of errors or omissions; or
2. to the provisions of the text of the bill of law
Paragraph 4 – Amendments to the bill of budgetary directives may not be approved if
they are incompatible with the pluriannual plan.
Paragraph 5 – The President of the Republic may send a message to the National
Congress to propose modifications in the bills referred to in the present article as long as
the joint committee has not started to vote on the part for which an alteration is being
proposed.
Paragraph 6 – The bills of the pluriannual plan law, of the law of budgetary directives and
of the annual budget law shall be forwarded by the President of the Republic to the
National Congress, under the terms of the supplementary law referred to in article 165,
paragraph 9.
Paragraph 7 – The other rules regarding legislative procedure shall apply to the bills
mentioned in this article, as long as they are not contrary to the provisions of this section.
Paragraph 8 – Any funds which, as a result of a veto, amendment or rejection of the bill of
the annual budget law, have no corresponding expenses, may be allocated, as the case
may be, by means of special or supplementary credits, with prior and specific legislative
authorization.
Article 167. The following are forbidden:
1. to begin programmes or projects not included in the annual budget law;
2. to incur expenses or to assume direct obligations which exceed the budgetary or
additional credits;
3. to carry out credit transactions, which exceed the amount of capital expenses,
excepting those authorized by means of supplementary or special credits with a specific
purpose and approved by an absolute majority of the Legislative Power:
4. to bind tax revenues to an agency, fund or expense, excepting the sharing of the
proceeds from the collection of the taxes referred to in articles 158 and 159, the allocation
of funds for the maintenance and development of education, as determined in article 212,
and the granting of guarantees on credit transactions by advance of revenues, as
established in article 165? paragraph 8, as well as in paragraph 4 of the present article;
5. to open a supplementary or special credit without prior legislative authorization and
without specification of the corresponding funds;
6. to reassign, reallocate or transfer funds from one programming category to another or
from one agency to another without prior legislative authorization;
7. to grant or use unlimited credits;
8. to use, without specific legislative authorization, funds from the fiscal and social
security budgets to supply a necessity or to cover a deficit of companies, foundations and
funds, including those mentioned in article 165, paragraph 5;
9. to institute funds of any nature without prior legislative authorization.
Paragraph 1 – No investment whose execution exceeds one fiscal year may be
implemented without prior inclusion in the pluriannual plan, or without a law to authorize
such inclusion, subject to crime of malversation.
Paragraph 2 – Special and extraordinary credits shall be effective in the fiscal year in
which they are authorized, unless the authorization act is enacted during the last four
months of that fiscal year, in which case, reopened within the limits of their balances,
such credits shall be incorporated into the budget of the subsequent fiscal year.
Paragraph 3 – The opening of extraordinary credit may only be allowed to meet
unforeseeable and urgent expenses, such as those resulting from war, internal commotion
or public calamity, observing the provisions in article 62.
Paragraph 4 – It is permitted to bind proper revenues generated by the taxes referred to in
articles 155 and 156 and the funds mentioned in articles l57, 158 and 159, I, a and b, and
II, to the granting of a guarantee or a counterguarantee to the Union, and to the payment
of debits owed to the same.
Article 168. The funds corresponding to the budgetary allocations, including the
supplementary and special credits, intended for the bodies of the Legislative and Judicial
Powers and for the Public Prosecution, shall be remitted to them on or before the
twentieth of each month, as provided by the supplementary law referred to in article 165
paragraph 9.
Article 169. Expenditure with active and pensioned personnel of the Union, the states, the
Federal District and the municipalities may not exceed the limits established in a
supplementary law.
Sole paragraph – The granting of any advantage or increase of remuneration the creation
of posts or alteration of career structures, as well as admission of personnel, on any
account, by bodies and entities of the direct or indirect administration, including
foundations instituted and maintained by the Government, may only be effected:
1. if there is a prior budgetary allocation sufficient to cover the estimated expenditure
with personnel and the increases resulting therefrom;
2. if there is specific authorization in the law of budgetary directives, excepting the
public and the mixed-capital companies.

TITLE VII – THE ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ORDER

CHAPTER I – THE GENERAL
PRINCIPLES OF THE ECONOMIC
ACTIVITY
*Article 170. The economic order, founded on the appreciation of the value of human
work and on free enterprise, is intended to ensure everyone a life with dignity, in
accordance with the dictates of social justice, with due regard for the following principles
1. national sovereignty;
2. private property;
3. the social function of property;
4. free competition;
5. consumer protection;
6. environment protection;
7. reduction of regional and social differences;
8. pursuit of full employment;
9. preferential treatment for small enterprises organized under Brazilian laws and
having their head-office and management in Brazil.
Sole paragraph – Free exercise of any economic activity is ensured to everyone,
regardless of authorization from government agencies, except in the cases set forth bv

law.

*CA 6/95.
*Article l7l. (revoked).
Article 172. The law shall regulate, based on national interests, the foreign capital
investments, shall encourage reinvestments and shall regulate the remittance of profits.
Article 173. With the exception of the cases set forth in this Constitution, the direct
exploitation of an economic activity by the State shall only be allowed whenever needed
to the imperative necessities of the national security or to a relevant collective interest, as
defined by law.
Paragraph l – The public company, the mixed-capital company and other entities engaged
in economic activities are subject to the specific legal system governing private
companies, including labour and tax liabilities.
Paragraph 2 – The public companies and the mixed-capital companies may not enjoy
fiscal privileges which are not extended to companies of the private sector.
Paragraph 3 – The law shall regulate the relationships of public companies with the State
and society.
Paragraph 4 – The law shall repress the abuse of economic power that aims at the
domination of markets, the elimination of competition and the arbitrary increase of
profits.
Paragraph 5 – The law shall, without prejudice to the individual liability of the managing
officers of a legal entity, establish the liability of the latter, subjecting it to punishments
compatible with its nature, for acts performed against the economic and financial order
and against the citizens’ monies.
Article 174. As the normative and regulating agent of the economic activity, the State
shall, in the manner set forth by law, perform the functions of control, incentive and
planning, the latter being binding for the public sector and indicative for the private
sector.
Paragraph I – The law shall establish the guidelines and bases for planning of the
balanced national development, which shall embody and make compatible the national
and regional development plans.
Paragraph 2 – The law shall support and encourage cooperative activity and other forms
of association
Paragraph 3 – The State shall favour the organization of the placer-mining activity in
cooperatives, taking into account the protection of the environment and the socialeconomic
furthering of the placer-miners.
Paragraph 4 – The cooperatives referred to in the preceding paragraph shall have priority
in obtaining authorization or grant for prospecting and mining of placer resources and
deposits in the areas where they are operating and in those established in accordance with
article 21, XXV, as set forth bv law.
Article 175. It is incumbent upon the Government, as set forth by law, to provide public
utility services, either directly or by concession or permission, which will always be
through public bidding.
Sole paragraph – The law shall provide for:
1. the operating rules for the public service concession- or permission- holding
companies, the special nature of their contract and of the extension thereof, as well as the
conditions of forfeiture, control and termination of the concession or permission;
2. the rights of the users;
3. tariff policy;
4. the obligation of maintaining adequate service.
*Article 176. Mineral deposits, under exploitation or not, and other mineral resources and
the hydraulic energy potentials form, for the purpose of exploitation or use, a property
separate from that of the soil and belong to the Union, the concessionaire being
guaranteed the ownership of the mined product.
Paragraph I – The prospecting and mining of mineral resources and the utilization of the
potentials mentioned in the caption of this article may only take place with authorization
or concession by the Union, in the national interest, by Brazilians or by a company
organized under Brazilian laws and having its head-office and management in Brazil, in
the manner set forth bv law, which law shall establish specifi c conditions when such
activities are to be conducted in the boundary zone or on Indian lands.
Paragraph 2 – The owner of the soil is ensured of participation in the results of the mining
operation, in the manner and amount as the law shall establish.
Paragraph 3 – Authorization for prospecting shall always be for a set period of time and
the authorization and concession set forth in this article may not be assigned or
transferred, either in full or in part, without the prior consent of the conceding authority.
Paragraph 4 – Exploitation of a renewable energy potential of small capacity shall not

require an authorization or concession.

• CA 6/95.
  **Article 177. The following are the monopoly of the Union:

1. prospecting and exploitation of deposits of petroleum and natural gas and of other
   fluid hydrocarbons;
2. refining of domestic or foreign petroleum;
3. import and export of the products and basic by-products resulting from the activities
   set forth in the preceding items:
4. ocean transportation of crude petroleum of domestic origin or of basic petroleum byproducts
   produced in the country, as well as pipeline transportation of crude petroleum,
   its by-products and natural gas of any origin;
5. prospecting, mining, enrichment, reprocessing, industrialization and trading of
   nuclear mineral ores and minerals and their by-products.
   Paragraph I – The Union may contract with state-owned or with private enterprises for the
   execution of the achvities provided for in items I through IV of this article, with due
   regard for the conditions set forth by law.
   Paragraph 2 – The law referred to in paragraph I shall provide for:
6. a guarantee of supply af petroleum products in the whole national territory;
7. the conditions of contracting;
8. the structure and duties of the regulatory agency of the monopoly of the Union.
   Paragraph 3 – The law shall provide with respect to the transportation and use of

radioactive materials within the national territory.

** CA 9/95.
*Article 178. The law shall provide for the regulation of air, water and ground
transportation, and it shall, in respect to the regulation of international transportation,
comply with the agreements entered into by the Union, with due regard to the principle of
reciprocity.
Sole paragraph – In regulating water transportation, the law shall set forth the conditions
in which the transportation of goods in coastal and internal navigation will be permitted

to foreign vessels.

• CA 7/95.
  Article 179. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall afford
  micro-enterprises and small enterprises, as defined by law, differentiated legal treatment,
  seeking to further them through simplification of their administration, tax, social security
  and credit obligations or through elimination or reduction thereof by means of law.
  Article 180. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall
  promote and further tourism as a factor of social and economic development.
  Article 181. Compliance with request for a document or for information of commercial
  nature, made by a foreign administrative or judicial authority to an individual or legal
  entity residing or domiciled in the country shall depend upon authorization from the
  competent authority.

CHAPTER II – URBAN POLICY
Article 182. The urban development policy carried out by the municipal government,
according to general guidelines set forth in the law, is aimed at ordaining the full
development of the social functions of the city and ensuring the well-being of its
inhabitants.
Paragraph 1 – The master plan, approved by the City Council, which is compulsory for
cities of over twenty thousand inhabitants, is the basic tool of the urban development and expansion policy.
Paragraph 2 – Urban property performs its social function when it meets the fundamental
requirements for the ordainment of the city as set forth in the master plan.
Paragraph 3 – Expropriation of urban property shall be made against prior and fair
compensation in cash.
Paragraph 4 – The municipal government may, by means of a specific law, for an area
included in the master plan, demand, according to federal law, that the owner of unbuilt,
underused or unused urban soil provide for adequate use thereof, subject, sucessively, to:
1. compulsory parceling or construction;
2. rates of urban property and land tax that are progressive in time;
3. expropriation with payment in public debt bonds issued with the prior approval of the
Federal Senate, redeemable within up to ten years, in equal and successive annual
installments, ensuring the real value of the compensation and the legal interest.
Article 183. An individual who possesses an urban area of up to two ,hundred and fifty
square meters, for five years, without interruption or opposition, using it as his or as his
family’s home, shall acquire domain of it, provided that he does not own any other urban or rural property.
Paragraph 1 – The deed of domain and concession of use shall be granted to the man or
woman, or both, regardless of their marital status.
Paragraph 2 – This right shall not be recognized for the same holder more than once.
Paragraph 3 – Public real estate shall not be acquired by prescription.

CHAPTER III – AGRICULTURAL AND LAND POLICY AND AGRARIAN
REFORM

Article 184. It is within the power of the Union to expropriate on account of social
interest, for purposes of agrarian reform, the rural property which is not performing its
social function, against prior and fair compensation in agrarian debt bonds with a clause
providing for maintenance of the real value, redeemable within a period of up to twenty
years computed as from the second year of issue, and the use of which shall be defined in the law.
Paragraph I – Useful and necessary improvements shall be compensated in cash.
Paragraph 2 – The decree declaring the property as being of social interest for agrarian
reform purposes empowers the Union to start expropriation action.
Paragraph 3 – It is incumbent upon a supplementary law to establish special summary
adversary proceeding for expropriation action.
Paragraph 4 – The budget shall determine each year the total volume of agrarian debt
bonds, as well as the total amount of funds to meet the agrarian reform programme in the
fiscal year.
Paragraph 5 – The transactions of transfer of property expropriated for agrarian reform
purposes are exempt from federal, state and municipal taxes.
Article 185. Expropriation of the following for agrarian reform purposes is not permitted:
1. small and medium-size rural property, as defined by law, provided its owner does not
own other property;
2. productive property.
Sole paragraph – The law shall guarantee special treatment for the productive property
and shall establish rules for the fulfilment of the requirements regarding its social
function.
Article 186. The social function is. met when the rural property complies simultaneously
with, according to the criteria and standards prescribed by law, the following
requirements:
1. rational and adequate use;
2. adequate use of available natural resources and preservation of the environment;
3. compliance with the provisions that regulate labour relations;
4. exploitation that favours the well-being of the owners and labourers.
Article 187. The agricultural policy shall bc planned and carried out as established by
law, with the effective participation of the production sector, comprising producers and
rural workers, as well as the marketing, storage and transportation sectors, with especial
consideration far
1. the credit and fiscal mechanisms;
2. prices compatible with production costs and the guarantee of marketing;
3. research and technology incentives;
4. technical assistance and rural extension;
5. agricultural insurance;
6. cooperative activity;
7. rural electricity and irrigation systems;
8. housing for the rural workers.
Paragraph 1 – Agricultural planning includes agroindustrial, stock raising, fishing and
forestry activities.
Paragraph 2 – Agricultural policy and agrarian reform actions shall be made compatible.
Article 188. The destination given to public and unoccupied lands shall be made
compatible with the agricultural policy and the national agrarian reform plan.
Paragraph l – The alienation or concession in any way of public lands with an area of
more than two thousand and five hundred hectares to an individual or legal entity, even if
through an intermediary, shall depend on the prior approval of the National Congress.
Paragraph 2 – Alienations or concessions of public lands for agrarian reform purposes are
excluded from the provisions of the preceding paragraPh.
Article 189. The beneficiaries of distribution of rural land through agrarian reform shall
receive title-deeds or concession of use which may not be transacted for a period of ten
years.
Sole paragraph – The title-deed and the concession of use shall be granted to the man or
the woman, or to both, irrespective of their marital status, according to the terms and
conditions set forth by law.
Article 190. The law shall regulate and limit the acquisition or lease of rural property by a
foreign individual or legal entity, and shall establish the cases that shall depend on
authorization by the National Congress.
Article 191. The individual who, not being the owner of rural or urban property, holds as
his own, for five uninterrupted years, without opposition, an area of land in the rural
zone, not exceeding fifty hectares, making it productive with his labour or that of his
family, and having his dwelling thereon, shall acquire ownership of the land.
Sole paragraph – The public real estate shall not be acquired by prescription.
CHAPTER IV – THE NATIONAL
FINANCIAL SYSTEM
*Article 192. The national financial system, structured to promote the balanced
development of the country and to serve the collective interests, shall be regulated by a
supplementary law which shall also provide for:
1. authorization for the operation of financial institutions, it being ensured the access of
the official and private banks to all the instruments of the banking financial market, such
institutions being prohibited from taking part in activities not provided for in the
authorization mentioned in this item;
2. authorization and operation of insurance, reinsurance, social security and
capitalization companies, as well as of the supervising agency;
3. conditions for the participation of foreign capital in the institutions to which the
preceding items refer to, considering especially:
1. the national interests;
2. the international agreements;
4. organization, operation and duties of the central bank and other public and private
financial institutions;
5. requirements for the appointment of members of the board of directors of the central
bank and other financial institutions, as well as their impediments after leaving office;
6. creation of a fund or insurance, for the purpose of protecting the citizens’ monies,
guaranteeing credits, investments and deposits up to a certain amount, it being forbidden
the participation of funds of the Union;
7. the restrictive criteria of the transfer of savings from regions with income below the
national average to others of greater development;
8. the operation of credit cooperatives and the requirements for them to obtain
operational and structural conditions characteristic of financial institutions.
Paragraph 1 – The authorization referred to in items I and 1I shall be non- negotiable and
non-transferable, it being allowed the transfer of control of the incumbent legal entity,
and shall be granted, free of charge, according to the national financial system law, to a
legal entity whose directors are technically capable and of spotless reputation and which
proves that its economic capacity is compatible with the undertaking.
Paragraph 2 – The financial resources relating to regional programmes and projects under
the responsibility of the Union shall be deposited at their regional credit institutions and
invested by them.
Paragraph 3 – Real interest rates, including commissions and any other compensation
directly or indirectly related to the concession of credit, shall not exceed twelve percent
per annum; charges above this limit shall be considered crime of usury, which shall be

punished in all of its forms, as the law shall determine.

*CA 13/96

TITLE Vlll – THE SOCIAL ORDER

CHAPTER I – GENERAL PROVISION
Article 193. The social order is based OIl the primacy of work and aimed at social well-
being and justice.
CHAPTER II SOCIAL WELFARE
SECTION I – GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 194. Social welfare comprises an integrated whole of actions initiated by the
Government and by society, with the purpose of ensuring the rights to health, social
security and assistance.
Sole paragraph – It is incumbent upon the Government, as provided by law. to organize
social welfare, based on the following objectives:
1. universality of coverage and service;
2. uniformity and equivalence of benefits and services for urban and rural populations:
3. selectivity and distributiveness in the provision of benefits and services;
4. irreducibility of the value of the benefits;
5. equitable participation in funding;
6. diversity of the financing basis;
7. democratic and decentralized character of administrative management, with the
participation of the community, particularly of workers, businessmen and retired persons.
Article 195. Social welfare shall be financed by all of society, either directly or indirectly,
as provided by law, with funds coming from the budgets of the Union, the states, the
Federal District and the municipalities and from the following welfare contributions:
1. of employers, calculated on the payroll, revenues and profits;
2. of workers;
3. and the revenues of lotteries.
Paragraph 1 – The revenues of the states, the Federal District and the municipalities
allotted to social welfare shall be included in the respective budgets, not being part of the
budget of the Union.
Paragraph 2 – The proposal for the social welfare budget shall be drawn up jointly by the
agencies responsible for health, social security and social assistance, in accordance with
the goals and priorities established in the law of budgetary directives, ensuring each area
of the management of its funds.
Paragraph 3 – A legal entity indebted to the social welfare system, as established in law,
may not contract with the Government nor receive benefits or fiscal or credit incentives
therefrom.
Paragraph 4 – The law may institute other sources intended to guarantee the maintenance
or expansion of social welfare, with due regard to the provisions of article 154, I.
Paragraph 5 – No social welfare benefit or service may be created, increased or extended
without a corresponding source of full funding.
Paragraph 6 – The social contributions referred to in this article may only be collected
ninety days after the publication of the law which instituted or modified them, the
provisions of article 150, III, b, not applying thereto.
Paragraph 7 – Benevolent entities of social assistance which meet the requirements
established in law shall be exempt from contribution to social welfare.
Paragraph 8 – Rural producers, sharecroppers and tenant farmers, placer miners and selfemployed
fishermen, as well as their spouses, who exercise their activities within a
household system and without permanent employees shall contribute to social welfare by
applying a rate to the proceeds from the sale of their production and shall be entitled to
the benefits provided by law.
SECTION II – HEALTH
Article 196. Health is a right of all and a duty of the State and shall be guaranteed by
means of social and economic policies aimed at reducing the risk of illness and other
hazards and at the universal and equal access to actions and serv ices for its promotion,
protection and recovery.
Article 197. Health actions and services are of public importance, and it is incumbent
upon the Government to provide, in accordance with the law? for their regulation,
supervision and control, and they shall be carried out directly or by third parties and also
by individuals or private legal entities
Article 198. Health actions and public services integrate a regionalized and hierarchical
network and constitute a single system, organized according to the following directives:
1. decentralization, with a single management in each sphere of government;
2. full service, priority being given to preventive activities, without prejudice to
assistance services;
3. participation of the community.
Sole paragraph – The unified health system shall be financed, as set forth in article 195,
with funds from the social welfare budget of the Union, the states, the Federal District
and the municipalities, as well as from other sources.
Article 199. Health assistance is open to private enterprise.
Paragraph 1 – Private institutions may participate in a supplementary manner in the
unified health system, in accordance with the directives established by the latter, by
means of public law contracts or agreements, preference being given to philanthropic and
non-profit entities.
Paragraph 2 – The allocation of public funds to aid or subsidize profit- oriented private
institutions is forbidden.
Paragraph 3 – Direct or indirect participation of foreign companies or capital in heath
assistance in the country is forbidden, except in cases provided by law.
Paragraph 4 – The law shall provide for the conditions and requirements which facilitate
the removal of organs, tissues and human substances for the purpose of transplants,
research and treatment, as well as the collection, processing and transfusion of blood and
its by-products, all kinds of sale being forbidden.
Article 200. It is incumbent upon the unified health system, in addition to other duties, as
set forth by the law:
1. to supervise and control proceedings, products and substances of interest to health
and to participate in the production of drugs, equipments, immunobiological products,
blood products and other inputs;
2. to carry out actions of sanitary and epidemiologic vigilance as well as those relating
to the health of workers;
3. to organize the training of personnel in the area of health;
4. to participate in the definition of the policy and in the implementation of basic
sanitation actions;
5. to foster, within its scope of action, scientific and technological development;
6. to supervise and control foodstuffs, including their nutritional contents, as well as
drinks and water for human consumption;
7. to participate in the supervision and control of the production, transportation, storage
and use of pschycoactive, toxic and radioactive substances and products;
8. to cooperate in the preservation of the environment, including that of the workplace.

SECTION III – SOCIAL SECURITY

Article 201. The social security plans, upon contribution, shall provide for, in accordance
with the law:
1. coverage for the events of illness, disability, death, including those resulting from
employment related accidents, old age and confinement;
2. aid for the support of the dependants of the low-income insured;
3. protection to maternity, especially to pregnant women;
4. protection to workers in a situation of involuntary unemployment;
5. pension for death of the insured, man or woman, to the spouse or companion, and
dependants, complying with the provisions of paragraph 5 and of article 202.
Paragraph I – Any person may receive social security benefits, upon contributions, as
established in the social security plans.
Paragraph 2 – Adjustment of the benefits is ensured, to the end that its real value is
permanently maintained, in accordance with criteria defined by law.
Paragraph 3 – All contribution salaries included in the calculation of the benefit shall
suffer monetary correction.
Paragraph 4 – The amounts habitually earned by an employee, on any account, shall be
incorporated into the salary for purposes of security contribution and the resulting effects
on benefits, in the cases and in the manner provided by law.
Paragraph 5 – No benefit which replaces the contribution salary or work earnings of the
insured shall have a monthly value lower than the minimum wage.
Paragraph 6 – The Christmas bonus for the retired and pensioners shall be based on the
value of the earnings in the month of December of each year.
Paragraph 7 – Social security shall maintain a collective insurance, of a complementary
and optional nature, funded by additional contributions.
Paragraph 8 – Any subsidy or aid from Government to profit-oriented private security
entities are forbidden.
Article 202. Retirement is ensured, in the manner prescribed by law, the benefit being
calculated on the average of the last thirty-six contribution salaries, after month by month
monetary correction, and upon verification of the regularity of the adjustments of the
contribution salaries, so as to maintain the real values, and upon compliance with the
following conditions:
1. at sixty-five years of age for men and sixty years for women, this age limit being
reduced in five years for rural workers of both sexes and for those who exercise their
activities within a family production system, therein included the rural producer, the
placer miner and the self-employed fisherman:
2. after thirty-five years of work for men, and after thirty years for women, or after a
shorter period, if subject to work under special conditions, which may be harmful to
health or physical integrity, as defined by law;
3. after thirty years for male teachers and after twenty-five years for female teachers,
for actual exercise of the teaching function.
Paragraph 1 – Proportional retirement shall be allowed, after thirty years of work for men
and twenty-five years for women.
Paragraph 2 – For purposes of retirement, the reciprocal computation of the period of
contribution in public administration and in private activity, either rural or urban, shall be
ensured, in which case the various social security systems shall compensate each other
financially, in accordance with criteria established by law.

SECTION IV – SOCIAL ASSISTANCE
Article 203. Social assistance shall be rendered to whomever may need it. regardless of
contribution to social welfare and shall have as objectives:
1. the protection of the family, maternity, childhood. adolescence and old age:
2. the assistance to needy children and adolescents;
3. the promotion of the integration into the labour market;
4. the habilitation and rehabilitation of the handicapped and their integration into
community life:
5. the guarantee of a monthly benefit of one minimum wage to the handicapped and to
the elderly who prove their incapability of providing for their own support or having it
provided for by their families. as set forth by law.
Article 204. Government actions in the area of social assistance shall be implemented
with funds from the social welfare budget, as provided for in article 195, in addition to
other sources, and organized on the basis of the following directives:
1. political and administrative decentralization, the coordination and the general rules
being incumbent upon the federal sphere, and the coordination and implementation of the
respective programmes, upon the state and municipal spheres, as well as upon benevolent
and social assistance entities:
2. participation of the population, by means of organizations representing them in the
formulation of policies and in the control of actions taken at all levels.
CHAPTER III – EDUCATION.
CULTURE AND SPORTS
SECTION I – EDUCATION
Article 205. Education, which is the right of all and duty of the State and of the family,
shall be promoted and fostered with the cooperation of society, with a view to the full
development of the person, his preparation for the exercise of citizenship and his
qualification for work
Article 206. Education shall be provided on the basis of the following principles:
1. equal conditions of access and permanence in school;
2. freedom to learn, teach, research and express thought, art and knowledge;
3. pluralism of pedagogic ideas and conceptions and coexistence of public and private
teaching institutions;
4. free public education in official schools:
5. appreciation of the value of teaching professionals, guaranteeing, in accordance with
the law, career plans for public school teachers, with a professional minimum salary and
admittance exclusively by means of public entrance examinations consisting of tests and
presentation of academic and or professional credentials, a single legal regime being
insured for all the institutions maintained by the Union:
6. democratic administration of public education, in the manner prescribed by law;
7. guarantee of standards of quality.
*Article 207. The universities shall have didactic, scientific, administrative, financial and
property management autonomy and shall comply with the principle of non-dissociation
of teaching, research and extension
Paragraph I – The universities are permitted to hire foreign professors, technicians and
scientists as provided by law.
Paragraph 2 – The provisions of this article apply to scientific and technological research
institutions.
* CA I l /96.
**Article 208. The duty of the State towards education shall be fulfilled by ensuring the
following:
1. mandatory and free elementary education, including the assurance of its free offer to
all those who did not have access to it at the proper age,
2. progressive universalization of the free high-school education;
3. specialized schooling for the handicapped, preferably in the regular school system;
4. assistance to children of zero to six years of age, in day-care centers and pre-schools;
5. access to higher levels of education, research and artistic creation according to
individual capacity;
6. provision of regular night courses adequate to the conditions of the student;
7. assistance to elementary school students by means of supplementary programmes
providing school material, transportation. food and health assistance.
Paragraph 1 – The access to compulsory and free education is a subjective public right.
Paragraph 2 – The competent authority shall be liable for the failure of the Government in
providing compulsory education or providing it irregularly.
Paragraph 3 – The Government has the power to take a census of elementary school
students, call them for enrollment and ensure that parents or guardians see to their
children’s attendance to school.
**CA 14/‡~
Article 209. Teaching is open to private enterprise, provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. compliance with the general rules of national education;
2. authorization and evaluation of quality by the Government.
Article 210. Minimum curricula shall be established for elementary schools in order to
ensure a common basic education and respect for national and regional cultural and
artistic values.
Paragraph 1 – The teaching of religion is optional and shall be offered during the regular
school hours of public elementary schools.
Paragraph 2 – Regular elementary education shall be given in the Portuguese language
and Indian communities shall also be ensured the use of their native tongues and their
own learning methods.
*Article 211. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities shall
cooperate in the organization of their educational systems.
Paragraph I – The Union shall organize the federal educational system and that of the
Territories, shall finance the federal public educational institutions and shall have, in
educational matters, a redistributive and supplementary function, so as to guarantee the
equalization of the educational opportunities and a minimum standard of quality of
education, through technical and financial assistance to the states, the Federal District and
the municipalities.
Paragraph 2 – The municipalities shall act on a priority basis in elementary education and
in the education of children.
Paragraph 3 – The states and the Federal District shall act on a priority basis in
elementary and secondary education.
Paragraph 4 – In the operation of their educational systems, the states and municipalities
shall establish forms of cooperation, so as to guarantee the universalization of the
mandatory education. <p>*CA 14/96. *Article 212. The Union shall apply, annually,
never less than eighteen percent, and the states, the Federal District, and the
municipalities, at least twenty-five percent of the tax revenues, including those resulting
from transfers, in the maintenance and development of education.
Paragraph 1 – The share of tax revenues, transferred by the Union to the states, the
Federal District and the municipalities, or by the states to the respective municipalities,
shall not be considered, for purposes of the calculation provided by this article, as
revenues of the government which transfers it.
Paragraph 2 – For purposes of compliance with the caption of this article, the federal,
state and municipal educational systems, as well as the funds applied in accordance with
article 213 shall be taken into consideration.
Paragraph 3 – In the distribution of public funds, priority shall be given to the providing
for the needs of compulsory education, as set forth in the national educational plan.
Paragraph 4 – The supplementary food and health assistance programmes provided by
article 208, VII, shall be financed with funds derived from social contributions and other
budgetary funds.
Paragraph 5 – The public elementary education shall have, as an additional source of
financing, the social contribution for education, collected from companies, as provided by law.

*CA 14/96.

Article 213. Public funds shall be allocated to public schools, and may be channelled to
community, religious or philanthropic schools, as defined by law, which

1. prove that they do not seek profit and that they apply their surplus funds in
   education;
2. ensure that their assets shall be assigned to another community, religious or
   philanthropic schools, or to the Government in case they cease their activities.
   Paragraph 1 – The funds provided by this article may be allocated to elementary and
   secondary school scholarships, as provided by law, for those who prove insufficiency of
   means, when there are no vacancies or no regular courses are offered in the public school
   system of the place where the student lives, the Government being placed under the
   obligation to invest, on a priority basis, in the expansion of the public system of the
   locality.
   Paragraph 2 – Research and extension activities at university level may receive financial
   support from the Government
   Article 214. The law shall establish the pluriannual national educational plan, with a view
   to the coordination and development of teaching, at its various levels, and to the
   integration of the Government actions leading to:
3. eradication of illiteracy;
4. universalization of school assistance;
5. improvement of the quality of education;
6. professional training;
7. humanistic, scientific and technological advancement of the country.

SECTION II – CULTURE

Article 215. The state shall ensure to all the full exercise of the cultural rights and access
to the sources of national culture and shall support and foster the appreciation and
diffusion of cultural expressions.
Paragraph 1 – The State shall protect the expressions of popular, Indian and AfroBrazilian
cultures, as well as those of other groups participating in the national
civilization process.
Paragraph 2 – The law shall provide for the establishment of commemorative dates of
high significance for the various national ethnic segments.
Article 216. The Brazilian cultural heritage consists of the assets of a material and
immaterial nature, taken individually or as a whole, which bear reference to the identity,
action and memory of the various groups that form the Brazilian society, therein
included:
1. forms of expression;
2. ways of creating, making and living;
3. scientific, artistic and technological creations;
4. works, objects, documents, buildings and other spaces intended for artistic and
cultural expressions;
5. urban complexes and sites of historical, natural, artistic, archaeological,
paleontological, ecological and scientific value.
Paragraph 1 – The Government shall, with the cooperation of the community, promote
and protect the Brazilian cultural heritage, by means of inventories, registers, vigilance,
monument protection decrees, expropriation and other forms of precaution and
preservation.
Paragraph 2 – It is incumbent upon the Government, in accordance with the law, to
manage the keeping of the governmental documents and to make them available for
consultation to whomever may need to do so.
Paragraph 3 – The law shall establish incentives for the production and knowledge of
cultural assets and values
Paragraph 4 – Damages and threats to the cultural heritage shall be punished in
accordance with the law
Paragraph 5 – All documents and sites bearing historical reminiscence to the ancient
communities of runaway slaves are protected as national heritage.

SECTION III – SPORTS
Article 217. It is the duty of the State to foster the practice of formal and informal sports,
as a right of each individual, with due regard for:
1. the autonomy of the directing sports entities and associations, as to their organization
and operation;
2. the allocation of public funds with a view to promoting, on a priority basis,
educational sports and, in specific cases, high performance sports;
3. differentiated treatment for professional and non-professional sports;
4. the protection and fostering of sports created in the country.
Paragraph 1 – The Judicial Power shall only accept legal actions related to sports
discipline and competitions after the instances of the sports courts, as regulated by law,
have been exhausted.
Paragraph 2 – The sports courts shall render final judgement within sixty days, at the
most, counted from the date of the filing of the action.
Paragraph 3 – The Government shall encourage leisure, as a form of social promotion.

CHAPTER IV – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Article 218. The State shall promote and foster scientific development, research and
technological expertise.
Paragraph 1 – Basic scientific research shall receive preferential treatment from the State,
with a view to public well-being and the advancement of science
Paragraph 2 – Technological research shall be directed mainly to the solution of Brazilian
problems and to the development of the national and regional productive system.
Paragraph 3 – The State shall support the training of human resources in the areas of
science, research and technology and shall offer special work means and conditions to
those engaged in such activities.
Paragraph 4 – The law shall support and foster the companies which invest in research,
creation of technology appropriate for the country, training and improvement of their
human resources and those which adopt remuneration systems that ensure employees a
share of the economic earnings rc sulting from the productivity of their work, apart from
the salary.
Paragraph 5 – The states and the Federal District may allocate a share of their budgetary
revenues to public entities which foster scientific and technological education and
research.
Article 219. The domestic market is pan of the national patrimony and shall be supported
with a view to permitting cultural and socio-economic development, the well-being of the
population and the technological autonomy of the country, as set forth in a federal law.

CHAPTER V – SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

Article 220. The manifestation of thought, the creation, the expression and the
information, in any form, process or medium shall not be subject to any restriction, with
due regard to the provisions of this constitution.
Paragraph 1 – No law shall contain any provision which may represent a hindrance to full
freedom of press in any medium of social communication, with due regard to the
provisions of article 5, IV, V, X XIII, and XIV.
Paragraph 2 – Any and all censorship of a political, ideological and artistic nature is
forbidden.
Paragraph 3 – It is within the competence of federal laws to:
1. regulate public entertainment and shows, it being incumbent upon the Government to
inform on their nature, the age brackets they are not recommended for and places and
times unsuitable for their exhibition:
2. establish legal means which afford persons and families the possibilities of defending
themselves against radio and television programmes and schedules which go contrary to
the provisions of article 221, as well as against publicity of products, practices and
services which may be harmful to health or to the environment.
Paragraph 4 – Commercial advertising of tobacco, alcoholic beverages, pesticides,
medicines and therapies shall be subject to legal restrictions, in accordance with item II
of the preceding paragraph and shall contain, whenever necessary, a warning concerning
the damages which may be caused by their use.
Paragraph 5 – Social communication media may not, directly or indirectly, be subject to
monopoly or oligopoly.
Paragraph 6 – The publication of a printed social communication medium shall not
depend on license from authorities.
Article 221. The production and programming of radio and television stations shall
comply with the following principles:
1. preference to educational, artistic, cultural and informative purposes;
2. promotion of national and regional culture and fostering of independent productions
aimed at their diffusion;
3. regional differentiation of cultural, artistic and press production, according to
percentages established by the law;
4. respect for the ethical and social values of the person and the family.
Article 222. Newspapers and sound broadcasting companies, or sound and image
broadcasting companies shall be owned exclusively by native Brazilians or those
naturalized for more than ten years, who shall be responsible for their management and
intellectual orientation.
Paragraph 1 – Legal entities shall not participate in the capital stock of journalistic and
radio broadcasting companies, except for political parties and for corporations whose
capital is exclusively and nominally owned by Brazilians.
Paragraph 2 – The participation referred to in the preceding paragraph may only take
place through non-voting capital and shall not exceed thirty percent of the capital stock.
Article 223. The Executive Power has the authority to grant and renew concession,
permission and authorization for radio broadcasting and sound and image broadcasting
services with due regard to the principle of the complementary roles of private, public
and state systems.
Paragraph 1 – The National Congress shall consider such proposition in the period of time
set forth in article 64, paragraphs 2 and 4. counted from the date of receipt of the
message.
Paragraph 2 – The non-renewal of the concession or permission shall depend on approval
by at least two-fifths of the National Congress. in nominal voting.
Paragraph 3 – The granting or renewal shall only produce legal effects after approval by
the National Congress, as set forth in the preceding paragraphs.
Paragraph 4 – Cancellation of a concession or permission prior to its expiring date shall
depend on a court decision
Paragraph 5 – The term for a concession or permission shall be ten years for radio stations
and fifteen years for television channels.
Article 224. For the purposes of the provisions of this chapter. the National Congress
shall institute, as an auxiliary agency; the Social Communication Council, in the manner
prescribed by law.

CHAPTER VI – ENVIRONMENT
Article 225. All have the right to an ecologically balanced environment. which is an asset
of common use and essential to a healthy quality of life, and both the Government and
the community shall have the duty to defend and preserve it for present and future
generations.
Paragraph 1 – In order to ensure the effectiveness of this right, it is incumbent upon the
Government to:
1. preserve and restore the essential ecological processes and provide for the ecological
treatment of species and ecosystems;
2. preserve the diversity and integrity of the genetic patrimony of the country and to
control entities engaged in research and manipulation of genetic material:
3. define, in all units of the Federation, territorial spaces and their components which
are to receive special protection. any alterations and suppressions being allowed only by
means of law, and any use which may harm the integrity of the attributes which justify
their protection being forbidden:
4. demand. in the manner prescribed by law, for the installation of works and activities
which may potentially cause significant degradation of the environment, a prior
environmental impact study, which shall be made public;
5. control the production, sale and use of techniques, methods or substances which
represent a risk to life, the quality of life and the environment;
6. promote environment education in all school levels and public awareness of the need
to preserve the environment;
7. protect the fauna and the flora, with prohibition, in the manner prescribed by law, of
all practices which represent a risk to their ecological function, cause the extinction of
species or subject animals to cruelty.
Paragraph 2 – Those who exploit mineral resources shall be required to restore the
degraded environment, in accordance with the technical solutions demanded by the
competent public agency, as provided by law.
Paragraph 3 – Procedures and activities considered as harmful to the environment shall
subject the infractors, be they individuals or legal entities, to penal and administrative
sanctions, without prejudice to the obligation to repair the damages caused.
Paragraph 4 – The Brazilian Amazonian Forest, the Atlantic Forest, the Serra do Mar, the
Pantanal Mato-Grossense and the coastal zone are part of the national patrimony, and
they shall be used, as provided by law, under conditions which ensure the preservation of
the environment, therein included the use of mineral resources.
Paragraph 5 – The unoccupied lands or lands seized by the states through discriminatory
actions which are necessary to protect the natural ecosystems are inalienable.
Paragraph 6 – Power plants operated by nuclear reactor shall have their location defined
in federal law and may not otherwise be installed.

CHAPTER VII – FAMILY, CHILDREN,ADOLESCENTS AND THE ELDERLY

Article 226. The family, which is the foundation of society, shall enjoy special protection
from the State.
Paragraph 1 – Marriage is civil and the marriage ceremony is free of charge.
Paragraph 2 – Religious marriage has civil effects, in accordance with the law.
Paragraph 3 – For purposes of protection by the State, the stable union between a man and
a woman is recognized as a family entity, and the law shall facilitate the conversion of
such entity into marriage.
Paragraph 4 – The community formed by either parent and their descendants is also
considered as a family entity.
Paragraph 5 – The rights and the duties of marital society shall be exerci sed equally by
the man and the woman.
Paragraph 6 – Civil marriage may be dissolved by divorce, after prior legal separation for
more than one year in the cases set forth by law, or after two years of proven de facto
separation.
Paragraph 7 – Based on the principles of human dignity and responsible parenthood,
family planning is a free choice of the couple, it being within the competence of the State
to provide educational and scientific resources for the exercise of this right, any coercion
by official or private agencies being forbidden.
Paragraph 8 – The State shall ensure assistance to the family in the person of each of its
members, creating mechanisms to suppress violence within the family.
Article 227. It is the duty of the family, the society and the State to ensure children and
adolescents, with absolute priority, the right to life, health, nourishment, education,
leisure, professional training, culture, dignity, respect, freedom and family and
community life, as well as to guard them from all forms of negligence, discrimination,
exploitation, violence, cruelty and oppression.
Paragraph 1 – The State shall promote full health assistance programmes for children and
adolescents, the participation of non-governmental entities being allowed, and with due
regard to the following precepts:
1. allocation of a percentage of public health care funds to mother and child assistance;
2. creation of preventive and specialized care programmes for the physically,
sensorially or mentally handicapped, as well as programmes for the social integration of
handicapped adolescents, by means of training for a profession and for community life,
and by means of facilitating the access to communal facilities and services, by
eliminating prejudices and architectonic obstacles.
Paragraph 2 – The law shall regulate construction standards for public sites and buildings
and for the manufacturing of public transportation vehicles, in order to ensure adequate
access to the handicapped.
Paragraph 3 – The right to special protection shall include the following aspects:
1. minimum age of fourteen years for admission to work, with due regard to the
provisions of article 7, XXXIII;
2. guarantee of social security and labour rights;
3. guarantee of access to school for the adolescent worker;
4. guarantee of full and formal knowledge of the determination of an offense, equal
rights in the procedural relationships and technical defense by a qualified professional, in
accordance with the provisions of the specific protection legislation;
5. compliance with the principles of brevity, exceptionality and respect to the peculiar
conditions of the developing person, when applying any measures that restrain freedom;
6. Government fostering, by means of legal assistance, tax incentives and subsidies, as
provided by law, of the protection, through guardianship, of orphaned or abandoned
children or adolescents;
7. prevention and specialized assistance programmes for children and adolescents
addicted to narcotics or related drugs.
Paragraph 4 – The law shall severely punish abuse, violence and sexual exploitation of
children and adolescents.
Paragraph 5 – Adoption shall be assisted by the Government, as provided by law, which
shall establish cases and conditions for adoption by foreigners.
Paragraph 6 – Children born inside or outside wedlock or adopted shall have the same
rights and qualifications, any discriminatory designation of their filiation being forbidden.
Paragraph 7 – In attending to the rights of children and adolescents, the provisions of
article 204 shall be taken into consideration.
Article 228. Minors under eighteen years of age may not be held criminally liable and
shall be subject to the rules of the special legislation.
Article 229. It is the duty of parents to assist, raise and educate their under- age children
and it is the duty of children of age to help and assist their parents in old-age, need or
sickness.
Article 230. It is the duty of the family, society and the State, to assist the elderly,
ensuring their participation in the community, defending their dignity and well-being and
guaranteeing their right to life.
Paragraph 1 – Assistance programmes for the elderly shall be carried out preferably
within their homes.
Paragraph 2 – Those over sixty-five years of age are guaranteed free urban public
transportation.
CHAPTER VIII – INDIANS
Article 231. Indians shall have their social organization, customs, languages. creeds and
traditions recognized, as well as their original rights to the lands they traditionally
occupy, it being incumbent upon the Union to demarcate them, protect and ensure respect
for all of their property.
Paragraph 1 -Lands traditionally occupied by Indians are those on which they live on a
permanent basis, those used for their productive activities, those indispensable to the
preservation of the environmental resources necessary for their well-being and for their
physical and cultural reproduction, according to their uses, customs and traditions.
Paragraph 2 – The lands traditionally occupied by Indians are intended for their
permanent possession and they shall have the exclusive usufruct of the riches of the soil,
the rivers and the lakes existing therein.
Paragraph 3 – Hydric resources, including energetic potentials, may only be exploited,
and mineral riches in Indian land may only be prospected and mined with the
authorization of the National Congress, after hearing the communities involved, and the
participation in the results of such mining shall be ensured to them, as set forth by law.
Paragraph 4 – The lands referred to in this article are inalienable and indisposable and the
rights thereto are not subject to limitation.
Paragraph 5 – The removal of Indian groups from their lands is forbidden. except ad
referendum of the National Congress, in case of a catastrophe or an epidemic which
represents a risk to their population, or in the interest of the sovereignty of the country,
after decision by the National Congress, it being guaranteed that, under any
circumstances, the return shall be immediate as soon as the risk ceases.
Paragraph 6 – Acts with a view to occupation, domain and possession of the lands
referred to in this article or to the exploitation of the natural riches of the soil, rivers and
lakes existing therein, are null and void, producing no legal effects, except in case of
relevant public interest of the Union, as provided by a supplementary law and such
nullity and voidness shall not create a right to indemnity or to sue the Union, except in
what concerns improvements derived from occupation in good faith, in the manner
prescribed by law.
Paragraph 7 – The provisions of article 174, paragraphs 3 and 4, shall not apply to Indian
lands.
Article 232. The Indians, their communities and organizations have standing under the
law to sue to defend their rights and interests, the Public Prosecution intervening in all the procedural acts.

TITLE IX – GENERAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS

Article 233. For the purposes of article 7, XXIX, rural employers shall, every five years,
present evidence before the Labour Courts that they have fulfilled their labour obligations
toward rural employees in the presence of the latter and of their union representative
Paragraph 1 – Upon evidence that the obligations mentioned in this article have been
fulfilled, the employer shall be exempt from any charges deriving from those obligations
in the respective period. In case the employee and his representative do not agree with the
evidence presented by the employer, it shall be incumbent upon the Labour Courts to
resolve the dispute.
Paragraph 2 – The employee shall, in any case, have the right to claim in court the credits
to which he believes he is entitled referring to the last five years.
Paragraph 3 – The evidence mentioned in this article may be produced at intervals of less
than five years, at the discretion of the employer.
Article 234. It is forbidden for the Union to assume, directly or indirectly, as a result of
the creation of a state, burdens related to expenses with inactive personnel and with
charges and repayments of internal or foreign debt of the public administration, including those of the indirect administration.

Article 235. During the first ten years after the creation of a state the following basic
rules shall be observed:

1. the Legislative Assembly shall be composed of seventeen Deputies if the population
   of the state is less than six hundred thousand inhabitants, and of twenty-four Deputies if it
   is equal to or greater than this number, up to one million and five hundred thousand
   inhabitants;
2. the Government shall have at most ten Secretariats;
3. the Court of Accounts shall have three members, appointed by the elected Governor,
   among Brazilians of proven good repute and notable knowledge;
4. the Court of Justice shall have seven Judges;
5. the first Judges shall be appointed by the elected Governor, chosen in the following
   manner:
6. five of them from among judges with more than thirty-five years of age, in
   exercise within the area of the new state or of the original one:
7. two of them from among public prosecutors, under the same conditions, and from
   among attorneys of proven good repute and legal knowledge, with at least ten years of
   professional practice. complying with the procedures set forth in this Constitution;
8. in the case of a state which originated from a federal territory, the first five Judges
   may be chosen from among judges from any part of the country:
9. in each judicial district the first Judge, the first Public Prosecutor and the first Public
   Defender shall be appointed by the elected Governor after a public entrance examination
   of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials;
10. until the promulgation of the state Constitution, the offices of Attorney-General,
    Advocate-General and Defender-General shall be held by lawyers of notable knowledge,
    with at least thirty-five years of age, appointed by the elected Governor and removable ad
    nutum;
11. if the new state results from the transformation of a federal territory the transfer of
    financial burden from the Union for payment of opting civii servants who belonged to the
    Federal Administration, shall take place as follows:
12. in the sixth year after its creation, the state shall assume twenty percent of the
    financial burden for the payment of the civil servants, the remainder continuing as a
    responsibility of the Union;
13. in the seventh year, thirty percent shall be added to the burden of the state and, in
    the eighth year, the remaining fifty percent;
14. the appointments subsequent to the first ones, for the offices mentioned in this
    article, shall be regulated by the state Constitution;
15. the budgetary personnel expenses shall not exceed fifty percent of the revenues of
    the state.
    Article 236. Notary and registration services shall be exercised by private entities by
    Government delegation.
    Paragraph 1 – The law shall regulate the activities, discipline the civil and criminal
    liability of notaries, registrars and their officials and define the supervision of their acts
    by the Judicial Power.
    Paragraph 2 – Federal law shall set forth general rules for the establishment of the fees for
    the acts performed by notary and registration services.
    Paragraph 3 – The entrance in notary and registration activities shall depend on a public
    entrance examination of tests and presentation of academic and professional credentials,
    and an office shall not be permitted to remain vacant for more than six months, without
    the opening of a public examination to fill it, either by appointment or transference.
    Article 237. The supervision and control of foreign trade, which are essential to the
    defense of national financial interests, shall be exercised by the Ministry of Finance.
    Article 238. The law shall organize the sale and resale of petroleum-derived fuels, fuel
    alcohol and other fuels derived from renewable raw-materials. respecting the principles
    of this Constitution.
    Article 239. The revenues from contributions to the Social Integration Program, created
    by the Supplementary Law number 7 of September 7, 1970, and to the Civil Servants
    Asset Development Programme, created by the Supplementary Law number 8, of
    December 3, 1970, shall, from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution, fund the
    unemployment insurance programme and the bonus referred to in paragraph 3 of this
    article, in the manner prescribed bv law.
    Paragraph 1 – At least forty percent of the funds mentioned in the caption of this article
    shall be allocated to finance economic development programmes, through the National
    Economic and Social Development Bank, with remuneration criteria which preserve their
    value.
    Paragraph 2 – The accrued assets of the Social Integration Programme and of the Civil
    Servants Asset Development Programme shall be preserved, maintaining the criteria for
    withdrawal in the situations provided for in specific laws, with the exception of
    withdrawal by reason of marriage, it being forbidden the distribution of the revenues
    referred to in the caption of this article, for deposit in the personal accounts of the
    participants.
    Paragraph 3 – Employees who receive monthly remuneration of up to two minimum
    wages from employers who contribute to the Social Integration Programme and to the
    Civil Servants Asset Development Programme shall be ensured the annual payment of
    one minimum wage, in which value the income of the individual accounts shall be
    computed, in the case of those who already participated in such programmes before the
    date of the promulgation of this Constitution.
    Paragraph 4 – Funding of the unemployment insurance programme shall receive an
    additional contribution from companies in which employee turnover exceeds the average
    turnover rate of the sector, in the manner established bv law.
    Article 240. The present compulsory contributions calculated on the payroll, made by
    employers, intended for private social service and professional training entities linked to
    the labour union system, are excluded from the provisions of article 195.
    Article 241. The principle of article 39, paragraph 1, corresponding to the careers
    regulated in article 13 5 of this Constitution, shall apply to career police officers.
    Article 242. The principle of article 206, IV, shall not apply to the official educational
    institutions created by state or municipal law and in existence on the date of the
    promulgation of this Constitution, which are not totally or predominantly maintained with
    Public funds.
    Paragraph 1 – The teaching of Brazilian History shall take into account the contribution of
    the different cultures and ethnic groups to the formation of the Brazilian people.
    Paragraph 2 – The Pedro II School, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, shall be
    maintained in the federal sphere.
    Article 243. Tracts of land in any region of the country where illegal plantations of
    psychotropic plants are found shall be expropriated immediately and specifically assigned
    to the settlement of tenant farmers, to the culture of foodstuff. s and medicinal products,
    with no indemnity to the owner and without prejudice to other sanctions set forth by law.
    Sole paragraph – Any and all good of economic value seized as a result of illegal traffic
    or narcotics and similar drugs shall be confiscated and reverted to the benefit of
    institutions and personnel specialized in the treatment and cure of drug-addicts and in the equipping and funding of supervision, control, prevention and repression of drug traffic crime.
    Article 244. The law shall provide for the adaptation of presently existing sites and
    buildings of public use and of the public transportation vehicles in order to guarantee
    adequate access to the handicapped, as set forth in article 227, paragraph 2.
    Article 245. The law shall provide for the cases and conditions in which the Government
    shall give assistance to the needy heirs and dependants of victims of willful crimes,
    without prejudice to the civil responsibility of the perpetrator of the offense.

*Article 246. The adoption of any provisional measure for the regulation of any article of the Constitution the wording of which has been altered by means of an amendment enacted as of 1995 is forbidden.

*CA 6 and 7/95.