Law Abbreviations

What is Law?

Law, is a principle, a precept, a norm, created to establish the rules that must be followed, it is an ordering. From the Latin ” lex ” meaning “law” – an imposed obligation. Grammatically lei is a feminine noun.

In a society, the function of laws is to control the behavior and actions of individuals in accordance with the principles of that society.

In the field of Law, the law is a rule made binding by the coercive force of the legislative power or legitimate authority, which constitutes the rights and duties in a community.

In the constitutional scope, laws are the norms produced by the State. They are issued by the Legislative Power and promulgated by the President of the Republic.

In the scientific sense, law is a rule that establishes a constant relationship between phenomena or between phases of a single phenomenon. Through systematic observation, the law describes a phenomenon that occurs with some regularity, associating cause and effect relationships, such as the Law of Universal Gravitation or the Law of Action and Reaction, determined by Isaac Newton.

Talion law

Talion law was a penalty that consisted of avenging a crime by causing the criminal damage or an evil similar to what he committed. Several passages in the Bible bear witness to the law of talion. It was a kind of revenge that punished the criminal so that he was punished for the same crime he committed.

Dry law

The dry law was enacted in Brazil in 2008 with the aim of reducing traffic accidents caused by drunk drivers. Law 11,705 amended the Brazilian Traffic Code. The driver who is stopped and caught in the breathalyzer test, with more than 0.1mg of alcohol in his blood, will have his driver’s license suspended, the car will be seized and will have to pay a fine of R$ 955.00.

What is a Complementary Law?

The complementary law is a law created to provide more information about the way in which rights or obligations (norms) that are defined in the Federal Constitution work.

Complementary bill

The complementary bill is the document that initiates the legislative process for a complementary law to be created or amended. Legislative process is the set of all the phases that are necessary for a bill to be approved, from the proposal to the voting phase.

Who can propose a complementary bill?

The proposal for a new complementary law can be made:

by the President of the Republic,
by the senators,
by federal deputies,
by state deputies,
by the committees of the Chamber of Deputies, the Federal Senate and the National Congress,
by the Federal Supreme Court (STF),
by other Courts,
by the Attorney General of the Republic.

Citizens can also propose a supplementary bill. When the project is presented by citizens, it is called a popular initiative.

How is a supplementary law passed?

For a complementary bill to be approved and become a law, it must be voted on and approved in the two Houses that make up the National Congress: the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Approval must be by absolute majority, that is, by the majority of the total number of federal deputies or senators.

In the Senate, voting takes place in a single round. As the Senate has 81 senators, at least 41 senators must vote in favor of the complementary bill.

In the Chamber of Deputies, voting takes place in two rounds. For the project to be approved, a minimum of 257 votes in favor is needed, out of a total of 513 deputies.

What is the difference between supplementary law and ordinary law?

The complementary law and the ordinary law have some differences. The main characteristic that differentiates an ordinary law from a complementary law is the type of matter that is defined by each one of them. Another difference is the vote required for the bill to pass.

Matter dealt with in the law

The complementary law always deals with issues that have been defined in the Federal Constitution. As the name says, it complements information about how a right works, for example.

The Constitution defines that a right exists and the supplementary law sets out all the other details about its functioning. It is the Constitution itself that informs when a matter must be regulated by a complementary law.

The ordinary law deals with other matters that are not defined by a complementary law. These subjects are called residual matter.

Vote for approval

In relation to voting for the approval of a bill, the difference is that the complementary law must be approved by an absolute majority and the ordinary law by a simple majority.

The absolute majority is the majority in relation to the total number of deputies or senators, even those not present in the vote being counted. The simple majority is the majority of parliamentarians who are on the day of voting on the bill.

What matters must be dealt with by supplementary law?

Here are some matters that must be regulated by a complementary law:

creation and division of federal, state and municipal territories,
passage of foreign Armed Forces through the territory of Brazil,
cases of ineligibility of politicians,
evaluation procedures for public servants,
rules of cooperation between the Union and the states, the Federal District and the municipalities,
functions of the Vice-President of the Republic,
organization and functioning of the Armed Forces,
law making,
organization of the Public Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office,
criteria for the collection of taxes,
rules of the National Financial System.

What is an Ordinary Law?

Ordinary law is the most common normative type provided for in the Federal Constitution and which enacts norms in a general and abstract way.

Ordinary laws can provide for any matter, with the exception of those reserved for complementary laws and the internal affairs of the National Congress, which must be regulated by decrees and resolutions.

Ordinary laws are considered primary normative acts, that is, they create, modify and extinguish rights following a legislative process and precepts expressed directly in the Federal Constitution. The other primary normative acts are:

amendments to the Constitution
complementary laws
delegated laws
interim measures
legislative decrees
resolutions

Differences between ordinary law and supplementary law

The differences between ordinary laws and complementary laws stem from the Federal Constitution and are of a material and formal nature. The difference of a material nature concerns exactly the matter that can be legislated by each type of law and the formal difference is related to the approval process that each one has.

Matter dealt with in the law

The complementary law has its field of action determined in the Federal Constitution in an exhaustive way, that is, some matters can only be regulated through this type of law. This occurs in matters that are already provided for in the Constitution in a superficial way and need to be supplemented.

Ordinary law provides for so-called residual matters, that is, all matters that are not reserved for supplementary laws, legislative decrees or resolutions.

According to the STF, there is no hierarchy between complementary laws and ordinary laws. However, the reservation of matter has the following consequences: a materially complementary law cannot be repealed by ordinary law, (considering that it cannot legislate on those matters), but a complementary law can always repeal an ordinary law.

Approval process

For a complementary law to be approved, an absolute majority, that is, more than half of the members of the National Congress, must be in favor of the project.

Voting for the approval of an ordinary law takes place by a simple majority, that is, the majority of parliamentarians present on the day when the bill is voted.

The formally complementary laws (approved by an absolute majority but which do not deal with matters exclusive to complementary laws) can be revoked by ordinary laws.

Ordinary bill

The ordinary bill is the document that initiates the legislative process for an ordinary law to be created or amended. Legislative process is the set of all the phases that are necessary for a bill to be approved, from the proposal to the voting phase.

Who can propose an ordinary bill?

According to article 61 of the Federal Constitution, the initiative of ordinary laws falls to:

to any member or committee of the Chamber of Deputies
to any member of the Federal Senate or the National Congress
to the President of the Republic,
to the Federal Supreme Court,
to the Superior Courts,
to the Attorney General of the Republic
and to citizens, through popular initiative, requiring the signature of at least 1% of the country’s electorate, distributed across at least five states, with no less than 0.3% of voters in each of them.

Delegated laws

Delegated laws are laws drawn up by the President of the Republic after authorization by the National Congress, which must specify the content and terms of the delegation.

According to article 68, §1 of the Federal Constitution, delegated laws cannot legislate on:

acts of exclusive competence of the National Congress;
matter reserved for the complementary law;
organization of the Judiciary and the Public Ministry, the career and guarantee of its members;
nationality, citizenship, individual, political and electoral rights;
multi-year plans, budget guidelines and budgets.

After approval of the law delegated by the National Congress, it enters the legal system with the status of ordinary law.

List of Acronyms Related to Law