Impeachment: Notes for historical-legal research into Law no. 1.079/1950

Abstract

The following article outlines a historical-legal study of the genesis of Law no. 1.079/1950 on the impeachment process in order to awaken lawyers’ critical conscience on legislators’ political options and understanding of the doctrine and jurisprudence surrounding the law. The methodology consists of presenting the repertoire of sources collected and to be collected, particularly the constitutional and legislative proposals on the subject, the debate on doctrine and the casuistry of the era, along with the national and foreign literature supporting it. The partial results reconstruct the Anglo-Saxon origin of impeachment, as well as its intimate relationship with the advent of the law and the attempts to implement parliamentarism in Brazil. It may be concluded that although studies on the institution may be useless in terms of the immediate practical reality, they are a vital component of a lawyer’s education on positive law in order for them to understand the challenges of their acting on the subject in a democratic society.