Constitutional Reform in Brazil: Lessons from Albania?
| Autor | Richard Albert, Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, Klodian Rado, Fabian Zhilla |
| Cargo | Professor at Boston College Law School (Newton, USA); as of January 1, 2018, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law (Austin, USA)/Professor of Constitutional Law at University of Brasília (Brasília-DF, Brazil). PhD from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany)/Ph.D. candidate from Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto, Canada).... |
| Páginas | 11-34 |
Licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons
Licensed under Creative Commons
11
Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, Curitiba, vol. 4, n. 3, p. 11-34, set./dez. 2017.
Como citar esse artigo/How to cite this article: ALBERT, Richard; BENVINDO, Juliano Zaiden; RADO, Klodian; ZHILLA, Fabian. Cons-
titutional reform in Brazil: lessons from Albania? Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, Curitiba, vol. 4, n. 3. p. 11-34, set./
dez. 2017. DOI: 10.5380/rinc.v4i3.54372.
* Professor at Boston College Law School (Newton, USA); as of January 1, 2018, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin
School of Law (Austin, USA).Juris Doctor – J.D. (Yale University). Master of Laws – LL.M. (Harvard University).Bachelor of Civil
Law – B.C.L. (Oxford University).E-mail:richard.albert@bc.edu.
** Professor of Constitutional Law at University of Brasília (Brasília-DF, Brazil). PhD from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Ger-
many). CNPq Research Fellow (3087332015-0). E-mail: juliano@unb.br.
*** Ph.D. candidate from Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto, Canada). Former judge in Albania. Master of Laws – LL.M. (King’s
College London, United Kingdom). Magistrate-Judge (School of Magistrates of Albania). Master of Laws – LL.M. (University of
Tirana, Albania). E-mail: klodianrado@osgoode.yorku.ca.
**** Lecturer of Law and Ethics at the Canadian Institute of Technology (Tirana, Albania). Ph.D. in Law from King’s College (Lon-
don, United Kingdom). Fulbright Scholar at Center for European Studies, Harvard University. E-mail: fabian.zhilla@cit.edu.al.
Revista de Investigações Constitucionais
ISSN 2359-5639
DOI: 10.5380/rinc.v4i2.50287
Constitutional reform in Brazil: lessons from Albania?
Reforma constitucional no Brasil: lições da Albânia?
RICHARD ALBERT*
Boston College Law School (United States of America)
richard.albert@bc.edu
JULIANO ZAIDEN BENVINDO**
Universidade de Brasília (Brasil)
juliano@unb.br
KLODIAN RADO***
Osgoode Hall Law School (Canada)
klodianrado@osgoode.yorku.ca
FABIAN ZHILLA****
Canadian Institute of Technology (Albania)
fabian.zhilla@cit.edu.al
Recebido/Received: 07.08.2017 / August 7th, 2017
Aprovado/Approved: 20.08.2017 / August 20th, 2017
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RICHARD ALBERT | JULIANO ZAIDEN BENVINDO
Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, Curitiba, vol. 4, n. 3, p. 11-34, set./dez. 2017.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction – The Challenge of Constitutional Reform; 2. The Problem of Judicial Corruption in Brazil;
2.1. An Overview; 2.2. Two Types of Corruption; 2.3. The Challenges Ahead; 3. The Problem of Judicial
Corruption in Albania; 3.1. Albanian Courts Before 2016; 3.2. An Overview of Judicial Corruption; 3.3.
Piecemeal Eorts to Combat Judicial Corruption; 4. Constitutional Reform in Albania; 4.1. Reforming
Existing Judicial Institutions; 4.2. Creating New Institutions; 4.3. Transitional Vetting; 5. Conclusion —
An Albanian Strategy for Brazil? 6. References.
1. INTRODUCTION THE CHALLENGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL RE
FORM
Three simple but shocking facts demonstrate the depth of the corruption pro-
blem in Brazil: of the 65 members on the congressional commission that deliberated
on President Dilma Rouse’s impeachment, 37 faced corruption or criminal charges of
their own; 303 of Brazil’s 513 congresspersons had been charged or were under inves-
tigation for serious crimes; and the same was true of 49 of the country’s 81 senators.1
1 BEVINS, Vincent., The Politicians Voting to Impeach Brazil’s President are Accused of More Corruption than She is. Los An-
geles Times, Los Angeles, 28 mar. 2016. Available at:< http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-brazil-impeach-
20160328-story.html>.
Abstract
Corruption is a fact of public life in Brazil. Since the coun-
try’s transition to democracy, corruption has been a chal-
lenge for each presidential administration. The Brazilian
judiciary has not escaped the corrupting inuences in
the region. One country whose challenges with judicial
corruption are arguably even greater than Brazil’s is Alba-
nia, a country for which we were appointed to act as Con-
sultants to the Special Parliamentary Committee on the
Reform of the Judicial System responsible for introduc-
ing major constitutional reforms aimed at curbing judi-
cial corruption. Those reforms to the Albanian Constitu-
tion entered into force in 2016. Too little time has elapsed
since then to evaluate whether these reforms will fulll
their purposes. And certainly much too little time has
passed for us to know whether the reforms in Albania can
be applied with any condence elsewhere in the world
where similar problems with judicial corruption continue
to undermine democratic norms of transparency and ac-
countability, namely in Brazil. We nonetheless believe it is
useful to explain the Albanian constitutional reforms and
to introduce them to readers in Brazil as available options
for combating judicial corruption.
Keywords: Constitutional reform; Albania; Brazil; Judicia-
ry; corruption.
Resumo
A corrupção é um fato da vida pública no Brasil. Desde a
transição do país para a democracia, a corrupção tem sido
um desao para cada administração presidencial. O Judi-
ciário brasileiro não escapou das inuências corruptoras da
região. Um país cujos desaos com a corrupção judicial são
sem dúvida ainda maiores do que o Brasil é a Albânia, um
país pelo qual fomos nomeados para atuar como Consulto-
res da Comissão Parlamentar Especial sobre a Reforma do
Sistema Judicial responsável pela introdução de grandes
reformas constitucionais destinadas a travar a corrupção
judicial. Essas reformas à Constituição albanesa entraram
em vigor em 2016. Pouco tempo se passou desde então
para avaliar se essas reformas atenderão aos seus propósi-
tos. E certamente muito pouco tempo passou para que pos-
samos saber se as reformas na Albânia podem ser aplicadas
com alguma conança em outros lugares do mundo, onde
problemas similares com a corrupção judicial continuam
a prejudicar as normas democráticas de transparência e
responsabilidade, nomeadamente no Brasil. No entanto,
acreditamos que seja útil explicar as reformas constitucio-
nais albanesas e apresentá-las aos leitores no Brasil como
opções disponíveis para combater a corrupção judicial.
Palavras-chave: Reforma constitucional; Albânia; Brasil;
Poder Judiciário; corrupção.
| KLODIAN RADO | FABIAN ZHILLA
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