From abusive to intersectional constitutionalism – a deontologial analysis

The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 states a project of a Social State, committed to defending gender and racial equality, social justice and human dignity. However, Brazil has undergone a series of legal changes that take away social rights and put the constitutional project at risk. The current office is an example of abusive constitutionalism, which utilizes popular legitimacy to impose constitutional-amendment proposals that can radically change the Constitution’s purpose, like the neoliberal social-security reform, flexibilization of labour rights, changes related to abortion rights, amongst others. This paper aims to defend the concept of intersectional constitutionalism, which is the vindication of a radical point of view about the Constitution based on gender, race and social relations, with minorities at the centre of the constitutional design. In an ideal scenario, intersectional constitutionalism is a deontological state of constitutionalism.