Constitution of Brazil
From Roach Busters
Article. For the conduct of business corresponding to the executive branch there shall be Ministers of State. The law shall specify their number, their titles, and the departments of the administration corresponding to each.
Article. The Ministers of State in assembly form the Council of Ministers. Its organization and function are determined by law. The Council of Ministers has its President.
Article. The Emperor appoints and removes the President of the Council of Ministers. He appoints and removes the other Ministers, on the proposal and with the agreement, respectively, of the President of the Council of Ministers.
Article. The President of the Council of Ministers shall represent the Council. He shall preside over its meetings and sign the resolutions and communications of the Council together with the Minister or Ministers, and without such signature no one is compelled to obey them. However, the Council may provide that certain decisions shall take effect by a general act issued in accordance with the same requirements as the preceding.
Article. The decrees, orders, and rulings of the Emperor must be countersigned by the Ministers of State of the respective departments in order to be valid. Without this requirement they are null and void.
Article. To be a Minister of State a person must be a native-born _____, a citizen in the exercise of his rights, more than thirty years of age, a layman, and enjoy an excellent reputation for his integrity and knowledge of public affairs.
Article. The Ministers shall enjoy the same immunities and be subject to the same disqualifications and prohibitions as deputies and senators.
Article. The Council of Ministers shall meet regularly on the days and hours it may determine, and extraordinarily at any time by the decision of the President of the Council of Ministers or two of its members.
Article. The Council of Ministers shall be in session if at least five members are present. The President of the Council has the right to speak and to vote.
Any decision of the Council requires the affirmatory votes of the majority of its members.
Article. A discussion in the Council of Ministers may be terminated at any time by majority vote. The motion to this effect shall not be discussed.
Article. The Council of Ministers has a deliberative vote and a consultative vote in the cases specified by law.
Article. The powers and duties of the Ministers, in their respective portfolios and in accordance with the laws and regulations of the executive power, are as follows:
(1) To comply with and enforce the Constitution and the laws;
(2) To direct, in conformity with the general policy of the executive power, the subjects within the competence of their respective ministries;
(3) To formulate and submit to the consideration of the General Assembly such proposals for laws as they may deem appropriate;
(4) To effect, within the limits of their functions, the payment of recognized debts of the State;
(5) To grant leaves of absence to the employees of their departments;
(6) To propose the appointment or discharge of employees of their divisions;
(7) To supervise administrative functions and adopt the necessary measures for their proper conduct, and to impose disciplinary penalties; and
(8) To sign and communicate the resolutions of the executive power.
Article. Upon the opening of each legislative period, the Ministers shall submit a concise report to the General Assembly, on all matters concerning their respective ministries.
Article. The President of the Council, on assuming his functions, shall attend the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate separately, in company with the other Ministers, and shall explain the general policy of the executive power.
Article. The Council of Ministers in full, or the Ministers separately, may, when they deem it expedient, attend sessions of the Chamber of Deputies or of the Senate and take part in the debates, with preference in speaking, but without the right to vote.
Article. The attendance of the Council of Ministers, or of any of the Ministers, is obligatory if the General Assembly or either of the chambers calls for them in order to interpellate them.
The interpellation shall be made in writing. For its acceptance it requires one fifth of the votes of the sitting representatives.
The General Assembly, or the chamber, shall indicate the day and hour for the Ministers to reply to the interpellations.
Article. Either of the chambers may pass judgment on the conduct of Ministers of State by proposing that the General Assembly, in joint session shall declare that their acts of administration or of government are censured.
Whenever motions to this effect are presented, the chamber in which they are made shall be specially convoked, within a period of not over forty-eight hours, to decide upon its course of action.
If the motion is approved by a majority of those present, notice shall be given to the General Assembly, which shall be called within forty-eight hours.
If upon the first convocation of the General Assembly there are not a sufficient number of members present to hold a meeting, a second convocation shall be made and the General Assembly shall be considered organized with the number of legislators who attend.
Article. The censure, adopted by an absolute majority of the full membership of the General Assembly, shall require the immediate resignation of the Minister or Ministers affected by it.
Article. The President of the Council of Ministers may introduce before the General Assembly a question of confidence on behalf of the Council of Ministers. If confidence is denied or if the President of the Council is censured or if he resigns, a total crisis of the Cabinet is produced.
Article. The third removal of a President of the Council of Ministers, during the same legislative term of office as a consequence of motions of censure, authorizes the Emperor to dissolve the General Assembly. The dissolution order includes the calling of elections to form a new legislature within 60 days of the dissolution of the old.
The General Assembly cannot be dissolved during the final year of its constitutional term of office.
Article. The nonapproval of a ministerial initiative does not oblige the Minister to resign, except in the case of his having made approval a matter of confidence.
Article. The Ministers may not exercise any other public function while they hold those posts.
They shall not intervene, directly or indirectly, in the direction or management of any private undertaking or association.
Article. Each Minister shall be personally responsible for his own acts and for the acts which he countersigns, and jointly and severally for those signed or agreed to with the other Ministers.
Article. The Ministers of State may not leave the territory of the Empire for more than seven days, without the authorization of the General Assembly.
Article. Upon termination of their office, Ministers remain subject to six months' residence, and may not leave the territory of the Empire except by authorization granted by an absolute majority of votes of the full membership of the General Assembly meeting in joint session.
Article. For their services, the Ministers shall receive a salary established by law, which may not be changed during their term of office.
The ministers may, when they deem it expedient, attend sessions of the Chamber of Deputies or of the Senate and take part in the debates, with preference in speaking, but without the right to vote.
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Chapter 3: National Congress
Composition of the National Congress
20. The legislative power of Brazil is vested in the National Congress, which shall consist of the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Senators.
21. (1) The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of 500 members elected for plurinominal constituencies that shall be geographically defined by law. The law shall lay down the nature and complementarity thereof in such a way as to ensure that votes are converted into seats in accordance with the proportional representation system and using the D'Hondt method.
(2) The number of members for each constituency shall be proportional to the number of citizens registered to vote therein.
(3) Nominations shall be submitted by political parties as laid down by law. Parties may submit such nominations individually or in coalition and their lists of candidates may include citizens who are not registered members of any of the parties in question.
(4) No one shall be a candidate for more than one constituency. No one may appear on more than one list.
(5) The law shall not limit the conversion of votes into seats by requiring a minimum national percentage of votes cast.
(6) Members shall serve for a term of office of four years, unless the Chamber of Deputies is sooner dissolved by the President.
(7) Members shall represent the whole country and not the constituencies for which they are elected.
22. (1) The Chamber of Senators shall be composed of representatives of the states and of the Federal District, elected by a majority vote.
(2) Each state and the Federal District shall elect three Senators for a term of office of eight years.
(3) One-third and two-thirds of the representation of each state and of the Federal District shall be renewed every four years, alternately.
(4) Former Presidents of Brazil shall be Senators by right for life without prejudice that incompatibilities, incapacities and grounds for suspension may be applied.
Powers of the National Congress
48. The National Congress shall have the power to provide for all the matters within the competence of the Union and especially on:
(i) taxation;
(ii) establishment and modification of Armed Forces troops;
(iii) national, regional and sectorial plans and programmes of development;
(iv) boundaries of the national territory, air and maritime space and property of the Union;
(v) incorporation, subdivision or dismemberment of areas of territories or states, after consulting with the respective Legislative Assembly;
(vi) temporary transference of the seat of the Federal Government;
(vii) granting of amnesty;
(viii) administrative and judicial organization of the Public Prosecution and the Public Legal Defense of the Union and of the territories, and judicial organization of the Public Prosecution and the Public Legal Defense of the Federal District;
(ix) establishment, transformation and extinction of public offices, positions and functions;
(x) establishment and extinction of Ministries and bodies of public administration;
(xi) telecommunications and radio broadcasting;
(xii) financial, foreign exchange and monetary matters, financial institutions and their operations; and
(xiii) currency, currency issuance limits, and amount of federal indebtedness.
49. It is exclusively the competence of the National Congress:
(i) to authorize the President of the Republic to declare war, to make peace and to permit foreign forces to pass through the national territory or remain therein temporarily, with the exception of the cases provided by a supplementary law;
(ii) to approve a state of defense and federal intervention, authorize a state of siege or suspend any of these measures;
(iii) to stop the normative acts of the Executive Power which exceed their regimental authority or the limits of legislative delegation;
(iv) to transfer its seat temporarily;
(v) to establish identical remuneration for Deputies and Senators;
(vi) to establish, for each fiscal year, the remuneration of the President and the Vice-President of the Republic and of the Ministers of State;
(vii) to examine each year the accounts rendered by the President of the Republic and to consider the reports on the execution of Government plans;
(viii) to supervise and control directly or through either of its Houses, the acts of the Executive Power, including those of the indirect administration;
(ix) to ensure the preservation of legislative competence in the face of the normative incumbency of the other Powers;
(x) to consider the acts of concession and renewal of concession of radio and television stations;
(xi) to approve initiatives of the Executive Power referring to nuclear activities;
(xii) to authorize a referendum and to call a plebiscite;
(xiii) to authorize, in Indian lands, the exploitation and use of hydric resources and the prospecting and mining of mineral resources;
(xiv) to give prior approval to the disposal or concession of public lands with an area of over two thousand and five hundred hectares;
(xv)
50. It is exclusively the competence of the Chamber of Deputies:
(i) to authorize, by two-thirds of its members, legal proceeding to be initiated against the President and the Vice-President of the Republic;
(ii) to issue a vote of no confidence against the Government or to defeat a confidence motion;
(iii) to introduce a money bill or a private bill;
(iv) to draw up its internal regulations; and
(v) to provide for its organization, functioning, police, creation, transformation or extinction of offices, positions and functions of its services, and the initiative of law for the establishment of their respective remuneration, taking into account the guidelines set forth in the law of budgetary directives.
51. It is exclusively the competence of the Chamber of Senators:
(i) to effect the legal proceeding and trial of the President and Vice-President of the Republic for crime of malversation;
(ii) to approve, by two-thirds of its members, treaties and other international agreements;
(iii) to authorize the President and the Vice-President of the Republic to leave the country, when such absence exceeds fifteen days;
(iv) to draw up its internal regulations; and
(v) to provide for its organization, functioning, police, creation, transformation or extinction of offices, positions and functions of its services, and the initiative of law for the establishment of their respective remuneration, taking into account the guidelines set forth in the law of budgetary directives.
The Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, or any of their committees, may summon a Minister of State or any chief officers of agencies directly subordinate to the Presidency of the Republic to personally render information on a previously determined matter, and absence without adequate justification shall constitute a crime of malversation.
23. The National Congress shall meet twice every year, from February 2 to July 17 and again from August 1 to December 2. If sessions scheduled for these dates fall on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday, they shall be transferred to the subsequent workday. The National Congress may recess for periods not exceeding thirty days each, and not more than ninety days during the year. However, it may be called to session at any time by the President to consider such subjects or legislation as he may designate.
24. (1) Each chamber of the National Congress shall elect its President and such other officers as it may deem necessary, by a majority vote of all its respective members.
(2) The President of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside over the deliberations of the Chamber of Deputies and the President of the Senate shall preside over the deliberations of the Senate. If a joint sitting of the two chambers is required, the President of the Chamber of Deputies shall preside.
(3) Each chamber shall determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and
