DEC
7
2009

New rules for the Brazilian real estate market

Fabio Appendino and Andre Maruch

During the pre-crisis period, the Brazilian real estate market was very active, subject to substantial demands of construction and to high levels of development. However, the world crisis commenced in the end of 2008 restricted the credit for financing of real estate undertakings, what aggressively contributed to a slowdown of the rhythm of such development.

NOV
4
2009

Grave diggers of Capitalism

Francisco Cesar Pinheiro Rodrigues

According to newspapers, the managing director of IIF – Institute of International Finances, which represents world’s major banks, during an interview held on September, 14, 2009, declared to be against a "fixed limit" of indebtedness, enforced by government, for banks. He suggested this limit to be variable, depending on assets risks, according to the subjective opinion of bankers themselves, which implies on difficulty or no alertness.

OCT
16
2009

Paedophilia

Stanley Martins Frasão e Fernanda Campolina Veloso

If the Constitutional Amendment Proposal on pedophilia, presented by congressman Urzeni Rocha (PSDB-RR) is passed, child abuse will be a non-bailable offence without expiration. Rochas’s objective is to grant the victim the opportunity of pressing charges “when he or she is in the properly prepared to do it.” This would contribute to increase the efficacy in combating this type of crime, which expires in the majority of cases as a result of the delay in pressing charges because the victim is afraid of the offender.

AUG
21
2009

Was there misconduct on the part of banks that gave rise to the crisis?

Francisco Cesar Pinheiro Rodrigues

Something that intrigues me, in times such as ours - when “hunting down the offender” is almost an obsession, even extending to topics of minimal importance - is the apparent indifference shown by the global media with regard to ascertaining, at the end of the day, whether or not offenses were committed or there was misconduct on the part of the CEOs that caused the enormous financial crisis which, to date, is afflicting not only the USA but also the whole planet.

AUG
7
2009

Changes on the Horizon: The Arbitration Fairness Act Returns

Mauricio Gomm Santos and Quinn Smith

While cases form the life-blood of the common law system, statutes have the power to instantly change the direction of the law. For many years, courts have struggled with the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”), gradually expanding its reach until it covered every contract moving in interstate commerce and applied to the exclusion of a large swath of state arbitration laws. Many groups have roundly criticized the FAA, decrying its ability to decide issues related to civil rights, consumer contracts, and employment issues.

JUL
31
2009

Administrative Police and the Police Power

Stanley Martins Frasão

The expression “Police Power” can be used in two senses: (i) broad, when it refers to laws conditioned to freedom and property and administrative acts by which they are reified; and, (ii) strict, when it is reported exclusively on administrative behaviors, Administrative Police. We seek here only to discuss Administrative Police, noting its differences in relation to Judicial Police.

JUL
24
2009

Almost prohibition

Stanley Martins Frasão

Newspapers and news programs daily announce the decrease in accidents and deaths after the so-called “Dry Law”. Inspection has been carried out, but it is well known that the lack of breathalyzers, particularly in smaller towns. We know full well that the discussion is far from over, since we are still waiting for Supreme Court to judge whether the law is constitutional or not. In the same manner, in the National Congress the matter will be debated again. The discussions about the subject continue to generate differences among Brazilians in all social classes, generating partial and general defenders of the law.

JUL
17
2009

Congratulations, Gordon Brown!

Francisco Cesar Pinheiro Rodrigues

On sitting down to write these lines, I feel myself to be thirty percent sad and seventy percent happy. The percentage of sadness is due to the fact that Gordon Brown, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has anticipated “my idea” (or at least its verbalization, as many people here in Brazil and in the rest of the world have already intuitively deduced this) that global solutions are necessary for global ills.

JUL
17
2009

Place your bests!

Stanley Martins Frasão

Rio de Janeiro, April 30, 1946, 125th anniversary of Brazilian Independence and 58th anniversary of the Republic, under the presidency of Eurico G. Dutra. This is the date of the decree number 9.215, which went into effect on the date of its publication, without enough time to balance the problems generated. The law prohibited the practice or exploitation of games of chance in all of the national territory, having as its basis some considerations: that the repression of gambling is an imperative of universal conscience; that the penal legislation of all civilized people tend towards that end; that the moral judicial and religious traditions of the Brazilian people is against the practice and exploitation of games of chance; that from the exception opened to the general law, baneful abuses of morality and proper conduct; that the licenses and concessions for the practice and exploitation of games of chance in the Federal Capital and spa resorts were bequeathed provisionally, and could be cancelled at any moment.

JUL
10
2009

Women’s Prisons

Stanley Martins Frasão

Recently the minister for justice, Tarso Genro, announced that the federal government foresees 5,500 new prison places in Women’s Detention Centers, allocated for the states of Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and Pará. The information from the Integrated Penitentiary Information System, of the Justice Ministry, based on June 2007, is that the number of incarcerated women in Brazil went from 10,285 in 2002 to 25,909.

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