Concorrência no Mercosul: para além do Protocolo de Fortaleza

We address specific problems to be considered once the Protocolo de Fortaleza becomes a fully recognised agreement. Elimination of anti-dumping measures a la WTO, services competition and the interrelationship between the regulatory agencies and the competition offices, issues regarding the concept of relevant market and, in a broader view, harmonisation of rules, criteria, institutions and regional competitive environments, are discussed. The European experience, if properly adapted, can be of value. In this context, two important principles are singled-out: acknowledgement of an acquis Mercosul – which allows a realistic and constructive perspective when facing the integration challenges, and the wise use of subsidiarity, for faster developments with lighter central institutions. Dispute settlement, in the competition framework, is not tackled, though – in this case – we are favourable to the creation of a supranational organism. All these points do not naturally encompass everything required for the full implementation of a competition policy in Mercosul.

After the demise of neoliberalism but not of conservatism, a third developmentalism?

Neoliberalism and developmentalism are the two alternative forms of economic and political organization of capitalism. Since the 2008 global financial crisis we see the demise of neoliberalism in rich countries, as state intervention and regulation increased, opening room for a third historical developmentalism (the first was mercantilism, the second, Fordism). Not only because of major market failures, not only because the market is definitely unable to assure financial stability and full employment, an active macroeconomic policy is being required. Modern economies are divided into a competitive and a non-competitive sector; for the coordination of the competitive sector the market is irreplaceable and regulation as well as strategic industrial policy will be pragmatically adopted following the subsidiarity principle, whereas for the non-competitive sector, state coordination and some state ownership are usually more efficient. Besides, the fact that capitalist economies are increasingly diversified and complex is an argument against the two extremes – against statism as well as neoliberalism – in so far that they require market coordination combined with increased regulation. But the third developmentalism probably will not be progressive as was the second, because the social-democratic political parties are disoriented. They won the battle for the welfare state, which neoliberalism was unable to dismantle, but the competition of low wage developing countries and immigration continue to offer arguments to conservative political parties that defend the reduction of the cost of labor contracts or the or precarization of labor.

A insignificância do descaminho e do furto na jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal

No ano de 2004, o Supremo Tribunal Federal definiu os critérios a serem utilizados na aplicação do princípio da insignificância. O mencionado princípio, em conjunto com outros princípios do direito penal, como fragmentariedade, subsidiariedade e intervenção mínima, pauta-se por intervir minimamente nas condutas sociais. Preza o princípio da bagatela afastar a aplicação da lei penal em situações que não há uma lesão significativa ao bem jurídico. O presente trabalho analisou como o princípio da insignificância vem sendo aplicado pela Suprema Corte em determinados crimes. Observou-se, ainda, porém de forma mais pormenorizada, o tratamento do STF na aplicação do princípio em relação ao crime de descaminho e de furto, a partir de um levantamento de julgados no período de 2009 a 2014.