{"id":1117,"date":"2016-03-29T17:39:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T17:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.observingbrazil.com\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2019-09-09T01:18:51","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T01:18:51","slug":"long-last-legal-legacy-rousseff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/long-last-legal-legacy-rousseff\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Last the Legal Legacy of Rousseff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Political scientist <a href=\"http:\/\/ebape.fgv.br\/en\/node\/727\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Pereira<\/a> and I have been patiently waiting for our article on the <em>Mensal\u00e3o<\/em> corruption scandal to come out in the <a href=\"http:\/\/journals.cambridge.org\/action\/displayJournal?jid=LAS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Journal of Latin American Studies<\/a>. I am particularly anxious because we establish the contours of an argument surrounding the accountability and transparency advances made during the Rousseff administration. This argument follows in the footsteps of work detailing Brazil&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1111\/j.1548-2456.2014.00230.x\/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">incremental accountability<\/a> gains undertaken by American University Professor Matt Taylor\u00a0and\u00a0FGV-CPDOC Professor, Sergio Pra\u00e7a.<\/p>\n<h4>&#8220;But Wait,&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cBut wait,\u201d you say, \u201cmore corruption has been revealed during the current administration than in all others combined\u201d. That is precisely our point; without measures introduced or tacitly approved by Rousseff\u2019s government or her (once upon a time) majority coalition, we would not be witnessing revelations of massive graft. How massive? Concerning\u00a0the Car Wash (<em>Lava Jato<\/em>) investigations, the Federal Police now estimate $42 billion reais (~US$13 billion dollars). What\u2019s more, 179 people have been formally accused of involvement (most of the political establishment), and yesterday Judge S\u00e9rgio Moro sent a list of more than 190 \u2018payments\u2019 made to politicians all over Brazil by Odebrecht, the country\u2019s largest construction and engineering company.<\/p>\n<p>In short, much of Brazil&#8217;s\u00a0political class is becoming ensnared in criminal proceedings, even as they struggle to nail Rousseff to\u00a0the cross of impeachment (or, in the case of the PT and her allies, pull her off). Whoever takes Rousseff\u2019s place may vie to disassemble much of the legal apparatus she tacitly built up. Among elements of this apparatus that Carlos Pereira and I highlight in our article:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Access to Public Information Law 12.527 (2012)<\/strong> \u2013 the bedrock transparency regulation for all powers and levels of government. Brazil was one of the last countries in Latin America to approve this measure, but the law is expansive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Anti-Corruption Law 12.846 (2013)<\/strong> \u2013 establishes punishments for companies and individuals involved in corruption and provides for expansive plea bargaining provisions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Law on Criminal Organizations 12.850 (2013)<\/strong> \u2013 establishes an encompassing definition for what constitutes a criminal organization, sets out punishments, and provides for expansive plea bargaining provisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As my last <a href=\"http:\/\/www.observingbrazil.com\/2016\/03\/22\/colluding-criminal-justice-system-good-luck\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post<\/a> pointed out, it is these last two laws that have transformed a landscape of political impunity into one of diminishing returns\u00a0for the corrupt.<\/p>\n<h4>But Wait!<\/h4>\n<p>But wait! The Public Prosecutor is just about to bring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.combateacorrupcao.mpf.mp.br\/10-medidas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">10 new pieces of legislation<\/a> \u2013 endorsed by a popular initiative with over 2 million signatures \u2013 to further enhance accountability. An executive summary of these measures is available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.combateacorrupcao.mpf.mp.br\/10-medidas\/docs\/executive_summary_english_version.pdf\">here<\/a>, and I\u2019ll list their approximate objectives* here just for link-less reading:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Transparency of disciplinary &amp; accountability measures to be promoted in\u00a0the judiciary and public prosecutor&#8217;s office.<\/li>\n<li>Legalize and promote \u2018field-based\u00a0integrity tests&#8217; for public servants to root out would-be malfeasants.<\/li>\n<li>Obligate public expenditures on anti-corruption and transparency advertising and promotion.<\/li>\n<li>Whistle-blower protection to ensure secrecy for those who denounce.<\/li>\n<li>Criminalization of unexplainable illicit enrichment.<\/li>\n<li>Classification of corruption as a heinous crime, to increase punishment severity.<\/li>\n<li>Increased processing efficiency for appeals relating to white-collar crime.<\/li>\n<li>Limit a judge\u2019s ability to suspend a case indefinitely because of a petition to examine the case (<em>pedido de vista<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li>Limit provisions for appeals and writs of habeas corpus during political trials.<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate the possibility that punishments be suspended due to extraordinary appeals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>*The English executive summary of these laws seems to differ substantially from the Portuguese list of laws, which is contained within a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.combateacorrupcao.mpf.mp.br\/10-medidas\/docs\/medidas-anticorrupcao_versao-2015-06-25.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PDF<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For an excellent article in a similar vein, see America&#8217;s Quarterly&#8217;s Brian Winter\u00a0and his\u00a0take on the president,<a href=\"http:\/\/americasquarterly.org\/content\/final-defense-dilma-rousseff#.VzQGE59GlHo.facebook\"> &#8220;A Final Defense of Dilma Rousseff&#8221;<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Political scientist Carlos Pereira and I have been patiently waiting for our article on the Mensal\u00e3o corruption scandal to come out in the Journal of Latin American Studies. I am particularly anxious because we establish the contours of an argument surrounding the accountability and transparency advances made during the Rousseff administration. This argument follows in <a href=\"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/long-last-legal-legacy-rousseff\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"sr-only\">Read more about Long Last the Legal Legacy of Rousseff<\/span>[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,145],"tags":[149,3,150,40],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-rule-of-law","tag-accountability","tag-corruption","tag-plea-bargaining","tag-rousseff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregmichener.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}