MSc Thesis submitted to the University of Brasilia
Legal characterisation of the means of intervention by the public authority
in urban public transport by bus
ABSTRACT
The Brazilian Constitution has redefined the institutional powers of the
municipalities within the Union. Particularly, the organisation and
operation of urban public transport services have been confirmed by article
30, section V, as a municipal task, to be executed within the principles
and rules of a public service, according to the article 175 of the
Constitution. Consequently, these services are also subject to the
rules of the Law no. 8.987/95, which details the principles and rules foreseen
by the article 175 of the Constitution. However, in their practice some
local authorities seem to be rather omit with respect to transport, in
contradiction with the rules of Law.
The present research aims to understand the circunstances and the reason
that lead the Brazilian public authorities to opt between two main
intervention modes in public transport. The first mode is here called as
the public service mode (resembling the public service concept seen in
French Administrative Law), where the service is considered to belong
to the competencies of the authorities, which plan and operate it or delegate
the operation to particulars by means of a contract. The second mode
here called the ordering mode (which comes into action in the German Persons?
Transport Law), whereby the authorities behave as an arbitrator between
private operators, not permitting excessive concurrence and at most edit
some regulations in order to guarantee some quality and safety features
of the system.
Thus the present research has analysed the regulations and actual attributions
of local authorities with respect to public transport in four cities: two
of them are metropolitan centres (Brasilia and Curitiba), one is a middle-sized
town (Bauru) and the remaining last, a smaller town (Lencois Paulista).
The results have shown that the size of the cities, but also particular
historical and political facts of the local public transport administration
help to understand the option of the authorities with respect to their
actual role in the sector in question.
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