Because of decades under authoritarian regimes, Latin American countries – such as Brazil – experienced longstanding periods of political instability and human rights violation. Dissolution of Parliaments, Court-packing and hegemonic Executive were part of this scenario. We assume that the pursuit of a limited government and protection of human rights, which are the very core of the constitutional democracy, shall not be understood separately from the system of checks and balances. For this matter, in the midst of a political crisis, the Brazilian case displays important challenges to Public Law due to the rise of a populist agenda recently. We claim that the new threats to democracy are related to an autocratic legalism, which means that political actors have been using legal devices in order to achieve illegal or unconstitutional aims. In this sense, it´s a more subtle, gradual and yet dangerous move that, in the end, might undermine constitutional values via democratic procedures.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
Join ICON•S