Brazil

The seventh and current Constitution of the Federal Republic of Brazil, which was adopted and entered into force on October 5, 1988 enshrines the fundamental rights of citizens of Brazil and affirms the democratic values. The Constitution has been amended 67 times up to 2010. These amendments relate to changes in economic order and government structure.

The powers of the Union, as defined by the Constitution, are the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, which interact and are independent within the limits of their authority.
The legislative power is organized on three levels: the federal level, the state level and the local level. At the federal level, the National Congress which consists of the two houses: the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate (Article No. 44). The executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic assisted by the Ministers of State. (Article No. 76). The judicial power is organized into Federal and State Courts.

Brazilian legal system is based on Roman-Germanic tradition. Most of Brazilian law is codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial part of the legal system, playing only a supplementary role.

The Constitution of Brazil contains provisions that specifically refer to copyright and related rights (Art 5, §27), and industrial property rights (Art 5, §29).
The Constitution also guarantees the protection of the intellectual property rights by giving the Union the exclusive power to enact laws related to commerce, informatics, telecommunication, radio broadcasting, cartographic and geological systems (Art. 22, § 1, § 4, § 18).
Furthermore, the Constitution reserves for the Union, the States and the Federal District the right to protect and preserve the traditional cultural expressions, both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, such as historic, cultural and artistic heritage (Art. 24, § 7 and Art. 216).
In particular, the protection of the indigenous people is also guaranteed under Article 231 of the Constitution, which reads: “Indians shall have their social organization, customs, languages, creeds and traditions recognized, as well as their original rights to the lands they traditionally occupy, it being incumbent upon the Union to demarcate them, protect and ensure respect for all of their property.”