Thoughts on the admission of personality rights in Brazil and its contemporary methodological challenges

Abstract

This paper presents a historical and contemporary analysis of personality rights in Brazil. Starting with a historical dissertation regarding the initial steps of Brazilian jurisprudence, which at first is not distinguished from Portuguese jurisprudence, until the advent of its own legal culture developed at the firstly founded Brazilian Law Schools (Largo São Francisco Law School and Recife Law School). On this matter, the paper analyzes the first signs of an admission of personality rights theories in Brazil, initially through the mentions of “absolute rights” on the work of the Brazilian jurist Teixeira de Freitas, and later, with the further developments of jurist Pontes de Miranda in face of the Brazilian Civil Code of 1916, which established a legal regime solely for matters of protection related to claims for damages arising from unlawful acts (torts). In this sense, the paper then advances to the analysis of the historical evolution of personality rights in Brazil by means of the Civil Code Projects of 1963 and 1975, the latter being later transformed into Brazilian Civil Code of 2002. Finally, the paper shall critically analyze, based on the historical and the concept-based nature of law, the Brazilian doctrines of direito civil-constitucional.