Legislative Proceedings beyond the Parliament in Authoritarian States: a comparative analysis between the 1930 Italian and 1940 Brazilian Criminal Codes

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2177-7055.2016v37n74p153

This paper aims to analyze the experience of the criminal reforms carried
out by the Italian fascism and the Brazilian “Estado Novo”, to understand the constitutional legitimacy for the parliament’s dismissal and the collaboration of renowned lawyers for codemaking, but without the ultimate control of popular representation. Analyzing the historical documents as the code-drafts and the criminal historiography, this paper concludes that in Italy, the parliament itself has abdicated its competence by a delegation of powers to the government and in Brazil, the 1937 coup d’État imposed a new constitution in which the x legislative competence fully to the Executive Power. Furthermore, both the regimes used intellectual legitimacy by jurists.