Le "Irrequietas leis de segurança nacional". Sistema penale e repressione del dissenso politico nel Brasile dell'Estado Novo (1937 - 1945)

The present work aims at analysing the penal system designed for the repression of political dissent during the Brazilian Estado Novo. Therefore, the research attempts to highlight the specific nature of this experience, which has not yet been thoroughly studied from a historical and legal viewpoint. This has been done by trying to comprehend the instants of continuity and discontinuity between this period in the history of Brazil and both the preceding republican era and the following authoritarian military regime. The work begins with the establishment of the field of action of the political repression thorough penal law and with the administration of the criminal justice against political dissent. Different types of sources and literature have been used in this study. The basic theoretical instruments are the historiographical categories of the “double levels of legality” (doppio livello di legalità - Mario Sbriccoli) and the “exceptional legal regimes” (regimi giuridici dell’eccezione - Massimo Meccarelli). The first part of this thesis presents the structure of the penal system and the juridical thought that was at its basis starting with the former debate on Getúlio Vargas' rise into power and the issuing of laws for national security during the years preceding the coup d'état; the next step will be the study of the exceptional penal laws applied in order to safeguard the political order in force. The second part of this research analyses the structure and the dynamics of the Tribunal de Segurança Nacional, the exceptional jurisdictional organ established for the judgement of crimes against the regime. This tribunal of political justice has been examined both as apparatus (starting with its relation to the ordinary jurisdictions) and by studying the juridical discourses produced through its sentences. The main achievement of this research has not been the discovery of pioneer juridical devices, nor the regime's authoritarian use of the penal law but has been concerned with the competition between these two elements, guided by a logic of contingency that the Estado Novo was comprised of and that supported the existence of such a special penal system for political dissent. Key words: Brazil: Estado Novo (1937-1945) – Political crime – National security laws – “Double level of legality” – “Exceptional legal regimes”.