O Código Criminal do Império do Brasil de 1830: combinando tradição com inovação

Abstract

This Master’s Thesis has as object the study of the history of Brazilian criminal law with emphasis on the Criminal Code of 1830. The objectives are to work with the Portuguese juridical tradition, the principal ideas and changes in the law during the eighteenth century, the political circumstances of the 1820s and the process of codification of penal law in Brazil. In order to do so, we will search the main sources of law in force until the end of the Old Regime in Portugal and argue from the Instituições of Mello Freire the function of the new criminal law proposed by the Portuguese Enlightenment. During the research, we will also make an investigation in the Annals of the House of Representatives and the Senate in order to understand how did set up the process of creating the Criminal Code of 1830 and, to identify possible influences, we will analyze the modern criminal codes that preceded, without ruling out the hypothesis of the originality of the national legislative work. Among the conclusions we should highlight the strength of the Enlightenment in the amendment of the penal system, the political and social circumstances that didn’t remove some retrograde postulates and the new function of public crimes and their punishments, as part of a larger project of political opposition.