Federative principle and constitutional competences conflicts

an analysis from the public health crisis management approach in Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper analyses the conflict of constitutional competencies established between federal entities in the Covid-19 Pandemic and the interpretation given by the Federal Supreme Court on the subject. The work starts from the study of the Federative Principle as a vector of interpretation of the Constitution and goes through the analysis of the division of constitutional competencies and its importance for the autonomy of the federated entities. The provisions of Federal Law 13,979/2020 are also analyzed, which generated debate on the conflict of competencies for regulation and action in the Pandemic. In the course of the research it was verified that the constitutional norms that deal with public health and the infra-constitutional ones edited to face the Pandemic of Covd-19 configure attribution and exercise of concurrent legislative competence and common administrative competence. Finally, it was about the interpretation according to the Constitution given to the Federal Law nº 13.979/2020 by the Federal Supreme Court, when declaring the competence of the States and Cities to regulate measures such as quarantine, independent of authorization of the federal sphere. It is concluded by the adequacy of the referred decision to the constitutional federalism, besides being clarified that the referred decision did not configure recognition of exclusive responsibility of the States and the Cities in the combat to the Covid-19, before the distinction between legislative competence and administrative competence, as well as the structuring of the Unique System of Health with participation of all the federated entities.