JURISTS OF EXCEPTION:

CARLOS MEDEIROS SILVA AND THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUENT POWER OF THE “REVOLUTION”: THE FIRST ACT OF THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE 1964 MILITARY COUP AND DICTATORSHIP

Abstract

This article analyzes the ideological foundations and role of the Minas Gerais jurist Carlos Medeiros Silva (CMS) in the drafting of the Institutional Act of April 9, 1964, the inaugural edict of the regime of exception established by the business-military coup that overthrew President João Goulart. It reconstructs CMS’s intellectual, legal-technical, and political trajectory from the Estado Novo to the post-1946 “redemocratization,” highlighting his defense of Estado Novo as a de facto legal power and his post-1945 formulations on the delegation of legislative powers to the Executive. It examines his behind-the-scenes role within the Supreme Command of the Revolution, as one of the authors of AI-1, based on primary sources — notably a historical manuscript located in the SNI Archive at the National Archives — and on contemporary civil and military testimonies. The article analyzes the doctrine of the constituent power of the “Revolution”, emphasizing how AI-1 institutionalized exceptionality within the constitutional order, establishing a duality between rule and exception. It also revisits CMS’s public defense of AI-1 as a "temporary constitutional law." Methodologically, the study relies on historical analysis of primary sources, constitutional doctrine, and testimonies from the period. This article is part of a broader effort to contribute to the construction of a social history of Brazilian law, through the mapping of the ideas and actions of jurists of exception during the military dictatorship (1964–1985).