Marco Aurélio: Reform should be done through amendments.
According to Supreme Court Justice Marco Aurélio Mello, President Dilma used a "figure of speech" when mentioning the convocation of a Constituent Assembly for political reform, since the reform "can and should" be done through amendments; "What she wanted was to emphasize the need for a change of course and therefore, for action from the constituted Powers, especially Congress. Political reform is delayed, there is no consensus, and that's how it stays," he analyzed.
Deborah Zampier
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – Jurists and lawyers said today (24) that calling a Constituent Assembly to debate exclusively political reform is legally unfeasible. This afternoon, President Dilma Rousseff announced that she intends to launch a plebiscite for the population to decide whether they want to call a Constituent Assembly to discuss only the topic. The last assembly resulted in the 1988 Constitution, which reformulated the text in force during the military regime.
According to Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Marco Aurélio Mello, President Dilma used a "figure of speech" when mentioning the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, since the reform "can and should" be done through amendments. "What she wanted was to emphasize the need for a change of course and therefore, for action from the constituted powers, especially Congress. Political reform is delayed, there is no consensus, and that's how it stays," he analyzed.
According to Marco Aurélio, a plebiscite is not necessary to analyze whether citizens want political reform. "It's just a matter of understanding the desires of society. And society wants change in the ethical field, in the normative framework, and greater attention to public services," he analyzed.
About to take office as a Supreme Court Justice, Luís Roberto Barroso argues that legal theory does not allow for the convocation of a partial Constituent Assembly. "No one can convene a Constituent Assembly and establish a prior agenda; the constituent assembly does not have a pre-set agenda. But sometimes reality defeats constitutional theory," he stated in an interview given to a legal website in 2011.
According to Barroso, the current Constitution allows for any type of alteration to the representative system, according to current theories. "I haven't seen any idea put forward for debate in political reform that cannot be implemented with the Constitution we have, or at most, amended. I think that convening an original constituent power is more of a rhetorical phenomenon than a legal necessity," he assessed.
According to retired Supreme Court Justice Carlos Velloso, who presided over the Court between 1999 and 2001, the idea of limiting the Constituent Assembly to just one topic is "absurd" and has no legal basis. He also criticized holding a plebiscite to address the issue. "I consider this plebiscite measure absurd, something unusual that hides everything, because it has no support in the legal order."
Velloso believes that reforms should be implemented through amendments to the Constitution or draft laws, an opinion also defended by the Brazilian Bar Association. "A lot of energy is spent on something that can be resolved without needing to change the Constitution. It's enough to amend the Election Law and the Political Parties Law," analyzes president Marcus Vinicius Furtado.
Contacted by Agência Brasil to comment on the legal viability of the measure presented by President Dilma Rousseff, the Attorney General's Office did not respond by the time this article was published.
Editing: Fabio Massalli