The Guantanamo Bay detention facility has long been subject of controversy, particularly concerning the treatment of detainees and the balance between human rights considerations and national security. This thesis explores what role human rights concerns are given in the rhetoric of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the context of Guantanamo Bay. Specifically, it examines to what extent their rhetoric aligns with Rule of Law versus Realism argumentation. Through a qualitative content analysis, the research illustrates how the alignment to the different theoretical frameworks either prioritizes or neglects human rights concerns. The analysis shows that Obama´s rhetoric places a consistent emphasis on the Rule of Law principles, giving human rights concerns a more balanced role, whereas Bush had a stronger emphasis on Realism principles, giving less weight to human rights. The thesis suggests that future research could explore the implicit meanings embedded in presidential rhetoric and the possible consequences of the priorities they signal.

Thesis (MA )--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The issue of democratic consolidation has become an important field of study in relation to developing states, especially with regards to Southern Africa. The region’s history of liberation struggles and the emergence of liberation movements as ruling parties are vital factors to take into account when investigating democracy and, more specifically, democratic consolidation in these countries. However, there are only a few comparative studies that have looked at the effects of liberation movement governance on democracy. Therefore, in this study two case studies – Zimbabwe and South Africa – are compared in an effort to offer more insight into this topic. The focus of the study was placed on how the behavior of liberation movement governments has affected the rule of law in order to assess their impact on democratic consolidation in general. This study follows the premise of studies in political behavior that actors’ attitudes (in this case, liberation movements’ political cultures) affect their behavior or actions that in turn have an influence on democratic institutions that eventually impacts democratic stability. In order to investigate this, the two case studies were compared and discussed in terms of the following themes: firstly, the respective liberation struggles and transitions to majority rule; secondly, the political cultures that have developed within ZANU-PF and the ANC during the liberation struggles; and lastly, the effect of the two parties’ behavior – informed by the political cultures – on the rule of law, a central feature of democratic consolidation. The findings indicate that in Zimbabwe, the rule of law disintegrated and democracy faltered largely due to the behavior of ZANU-PF. In South Africa, on the other hand, the rule of law has so far been upheld and the prospects for democratic consolidation seem more positive than in the case of Zimbabwe. In the last few years, though, the ruling ANC has shown tendencies that could prove to be detrimental to the future of democracy in South Africa. The ANC and ZANU-PF have both exhibited an authoritarian political culture, a desire to capture the state, tendencies towards centralization of power and the delegitimation of opposition. However, perhaps the key explanation for the protection of the rule of law in South Africa and the disintegration thereof in Zimbabwe has less to do with the political culture than the constraining influence of the international context with a renewed focus on democracy and human rights and internal factors such as the constitution, civil society and a robust media. Furthermore, Zimbabwe experienced a watershed moment in the 2000 with the constitutional referendum which the Mugabe regime lost. With the loss of the referendum, ZANU-PF’s democratic credentials were tested and it failed. In South Africa, such a watershed moment has not happened yet – the ANC’s democratic credentials have yet to be tested like this. Therefore, the future of democracy is still uncertain even though in comparison with Zimbabwe, the prospects of democratic survival seem to be more positive. In conclusion, it is not possible to claim that liberation movement governance in general negatively affects democratic consolidation. The findings of the study indicate that this has definitely been the case in Zimbabwe, but so far not in South Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kwessie van demokratiese konsolidasie het ‘n belangrike veld van studie geword in verband met ontwikkelende lande, veral met betrekking tot Suider-Afrika. Die gebied se geskiedenis van bevrydingstryde en die opkoms van vryheidsbewegings as regerende partye is belangrike faktore om in ag te neem wanneer demokrasie en, meer spesifiek, demokratiese konsolidasie ondersoek word. Tog is daar sover net ‘n paar vergelykende studies wat gekyk het na die effekte van bevrydingsbewegings se regeerkunde op demokrasie. Gevolglik, in hierdie studie is twee gevallestudies – Zimbabwe en Suid-Afrika – vergelyk in ‘n poging om meer insig te bied met betrekking tot hierdie onderwerp. Die fokus van die studie is geplaas op hoe die gedrag van regerende bevrydingsbewegings die oppergesag van die reg beïnvloed in ‘n poging om te bepaal hoe hulle demokratiese konsolidasie in die algemeen affekteer. Die studie volg die veronderstelling van studies in politieke gedrag dat akteurs se houdings (in hierdie geval die politieke kulture van die bevrydingsbewegings) beïnvloed hul gedrag of aksies wat weer ‘n invloed het op demokratiese instellings wat uiteindelik ‘n effek het op demokratiese stabiliteit. Om dit te ondersoek is die twee gevallestudies vergelyk en bespreek met betrekking tot die volgende: eerstens, die onderskeidelike vryheidstryde en oorgange tot meerderheidsregerings; tweedens, die politieke kulture wat ontwikkel het binne ZANU-PF en die ANC gedurende die vryheidstryde; en laastens, die effek van die twee partye se gedrag – geïnspireer deur die politieke kulture – op die oppergesag van die reg, ‘n sleutel kenmerk van demokratiese konsolidasie. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat die oppergesag van die reg in Zimbabwe in duie gestort het en demokrasie gefaal het grootliks as gevolg van ZANU-PF se gedrag. In Suid-Afrika, aan die anderkant, is die oppergesag van die reg sover gehandhaaf en die vooruitsigte vir demokratiese konsolidasie blyk om meer positief te wees as in die geval van Zimbabwe. Tog het die ANC oor die laaste paar jaar tendense getoon wat skadelik kan wees vir die toekoms van demokrasie in Suid-Afrika. Die ANC en ZANU-PF het beide ‘n outoritêre politieke kultuur geopenbaar, ‘n begeerte om beheer oor die staat oor te neem, tendense tot die sentralisering van mag en om opposisie te ondermyn. Alhoewel, die moontlike sleutel verklaring vir die beskerming van die oppergesag van die reg in Suid-Afrika en die disintegrering daarvan in Zimbabwe minder te doen het met die politieke kultuur as die beperkende invloed van die internasionale konteks met ‘n hernude fokus op demokrasie en menseregte en interne faktore soos die grondwet, die burgerlike samelewing en ‘n robuuste media. Verder, Zimbabwe het ‘n keerpunt beleef in 2000 met die konstitusionele referendum wat die Mugabe regime verloor het. Met die verlies van die referendum, is ZANU-PF se demokratiese getuigskrifte getoets en dit het gefaal. Suid-Afrika het nog nie so ‘n keerpunt beleef nie – die ANC se demokratiese getuigskrifte moet nog op so ‘n wyse getoets word. Daarom is die toekoms van demokrasie steeds onseker, maar in vergelyking met Zimbabwe, blyk dit dat die vooruitsigte vir demokratiese oorlewing meer positief is. Ter slotte, is dit nie moontlik om te verklaar dat bevrydingbewegings se regeerkunde demokratiese konsolidasie oor die algemeen negatief beïnvloed nie. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat dit definitief die geval in Zimbabwe is, maar sover nie in Suid-Afrika nie.

L'existence de mécanismes efficaces de contrôle de l'activité administrative est une problématique commune aux pays européens. Le contrôle des juges y apparaît fondamental. Il est un gage de la soumission de l'administration au droit, via le respect du principe de légalité. Le rôle qu'ils jouent ne selimite toutefois pas à cette simple fonction. C'est ce que tend à démontrer une étude comparée globale du recours pour excès de pouvoir français et la judicial review anglaise. Alors que chacun de ces deux mécanismes apparaît comme une forme limitée de contrôle de la légalité, ils ont en réalité une portée plus étendue. Sous l'effet du développement des contraintes pesant sur l'action administrative, conséquence de l'enrichissement normatif des ordres juridiques, le rôle des juges s'accroît. La place qu'ils occupent au sein des institutions nationales doit être clairement définie, afin d'en assurer la légitimité.N'étant plus uniquement les garants de la volonté d'un Parlement de plus en plus contraint, les juges voient les fondements de leur rôle être renouvelés. La liberté dont ils disposent va croissante. Ce mouvement révèle leur double figure : tantôt acteurs du contrôle de légalité, et principal outil de soumission de l'administration à un droit en constant développement, ils sont également un moteur de ce mouvement. Cela leur permet d'en fixer les limites afin de ne pas scléroser l'activité administrative, elle aussi porteuse d'une légitimité propre. L'étude comparée du recours pour excès de pouvoir et de la judicial review permet la mise en lumière de cette dualité : les juges en définissent les différentes facettes et participent ainsi activement à la définition de leur propre rôle. / The existence of efficient mechanisms of control for administrative activity is a common problem in European countries. Judicial control is of primary importance. It is a guarentee of the respect of law by public authorities, through the principle of legality. But, the role of judges is not only defined by this function. This can be demonstrated by a global comparison of the French recours pour excès de pouvoir and the English judicial review. While both mechanisms seem to allow a limited control of legality, the picture is not as simple. Because of the development of the strains on administrative action, due to the normative enrichment of legal orders, the role of the judiciary is extending. The position of judges within national institutions has to be clearly defined, in order to guarantee their legitimacy.As they can no longer be described as protectors of the will of Parliament, the foundations of their role is reassessed. Their discretionary power is increasing. It reveals their dualiaty: they are active in the control of legality, and as such they are the main instrument of the submission of public authorities to a developing legality, and they are also actors of this movment. As such, they draw limits in order not to ossify administrative activity, which is also legitimate. The comparision between the recours pour excès de pouvoir and judicial review can reveal this duality : the judges define its various aspects and actively participate to the definition of their own role.

The present thesis seeks to problematize the UN discourse within transitional justice. Many scholars have pointed out that the discourse has been normalised and that is why it is in need for deconstruction. The study aims to critically analyse how justice and reconciliation are understood in the field. For the purpose of the study Derrida’s concepts on justice and forgiveness have been chosen as theoretical frameworks. The method of study is a deconstructive analysis, based on Derrida’s notion of deconstruction. The method implies analysis of language of the research material, i.e. four UN reports regarding transitional justice from 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The study has shown, firstly, that the rule of law concept is closely connected with the idea of justice and, secondly, justice is often reduced to accountability. That in turn explains the dominance of the juridical instruments in transitional justice processes. Apart from this, based on Derrida’s concept of forgiveness, reconciliation and mechanisms applied represent a conditional forgiveness, seeking to re-establish normality. Another problem is that reconciliation is not sufficiently approached in the reports. Nevertheless, the history of the transitional justice development has shown that there is a potential for further changes and that is why it necessary to continue question the established norms.   Finally, deconstruction analysis has proved to be an adequate method for analysing transitional justice discourses and contributed to a nuanced analysis. The use of two languages, English and Russian versions of the reports allowed to identify and visualise some conceptual constructions that could otherwise have been missing.

The main question in this thesis is what kind of considerations political parties in the Swedish parliament have made between individual freedoms and state power in matters concerning information technology. Hence, it relates to a central and never ending debate about the proper relationship between the individual rights of citizens and protection of their personal integrity vis-à-vis state power and the interest of society in general, and in particular how this is affected by the rapid development of information technology. Four cases of legislative processes about information technology are analyzed. These cases concern parliamentary debates regarding the secrecy act (sekretesslagen) in 1980 (first debate), three debates concerning the personal data act (personuppgiftslagen) in 1998-99, three debates concerning the surveillance and crime prevention act (lag om hemlig rumsavlyssning & åtgärder för att förhindra vissa särskilt allvarliga brott med mera) in 2006-07 and three debates concerning the national defence radio establishment act (FRA & lag om signalspaning) in 2007-09. An analytical model is developed that includes two ideal types, individual freedom and state power, for the study and categorization of the parties and their positions in each debate. Thus, parties are categorized according to their proximity to the ideal types. The study illustrates that the majority of parties have a tendency to compromise between values constituting the two ideal types; they choose a so called hybrid position in between individual freedom and state power. The exception to this pattern is the Green Party and the Left Party that tend to choose a position close to individual freedom. Three hypotheses are tested. The first implies that parties tend to position themselves in-between the ideal type positions of individual freedom and state power (hybrid positions). This hypothesis gets strong support as hybrid positions are the most common outcome. The second hypothesis infers that a party has a tendency to support state power when in government, but individual freedom when in opposition. This hypothesis also gets empirical support, as parties, when in government, tend increasingly to support values related to state power, but support is somewhat weaker than for the first hypothesis. Finally, the third hypothesis implies that September 11 2001 was a critical moment in relation to how parties deal with values related to individual freedom and state power, i.e. parties were expected generally to be more disposed to support state power after than before September 11. This gets some support as most parties show this tendency. In parliamentary debates after September 11 the Social Democrats, the Moderate Party and the Liberal Party have been more disposed to position themselves close to the value of state power. On the other hand, the Green Party and the Left Party have not changed their positons. One reason could be that neither of these two parties were in government during the studied years

Le principe de légalité de l’impôt, en tant que traduction au plan juridique du principe de consentement de l’impôt et principe fondamental du droit fiscal, est universellement reconnu par des pays démocratiques. Ce principe consistant à limiter le pouvoir de l’exécutif en matière fiscale et protéger des droits fondamentaux du contribuable en tant que citoyen, joue un rôle crucial pour l’établissement de la hiérarchie des normes dans un Etat de droit. Pourtant, ce principe n’est reconnu que de manière partielle et imprécise dans le droit chinois. Nous avons conviction que l’application effective de ce principe permettra non seulement d’améliorer l’efficacité de la gestion des impôts, mais aussi de diminuer les tensions et d’améliorer les relations entre l’administration fiscale et le contribuable. L’application de ce principe doit se réaliser autour de deux axes : l’un consiste en l’établissement des normes fiscales essentielles par la loi afin de délimiter le pouvoir réglementaire en matière fiscale, et l’autre en la mise en œuvre effective de ces normes dans les procédures fiscales afin de protéger les droits du contribuable. Pour le premier, l’abrogation de ces habilitations nous paraît fort souhaitable et indispensable pour régler le problème de l’incompétence négative du législateur chinois et celui du déclassement des normes fiscales dans le pays. Pour ce dernier, il est nécessaire de révéler les illégalités et les irrégularités commises dans l’exécution de la loi fiscale qui menacent sérieusement l’application effective du principe de légalité de l’impôt en Chine, que ce soit dans les procédures d’imposition ou dans les procédures contentieuses. / The principle of legality of the tax, being a translation of the taxation consent in a legal background, is universally recognized by democratic countries. This principle, consisting to limit the taxation power of the government and to protect the fundamental rights of citizen, plays a crucial role to establish a hierarchy of legal rules. However, this principle is recognized only partially and vaguely in China. We have conviction that the effective application of this principle will not only improve the efficiency of the management of the taxes, but also calm down the tensions and to improve the relationship between the administration and tax payers.The application of this principle must be carried out around two axes: one consists in the establishment of taxation rules principally by law in order to limit the power of regulation of government, the other in effective application of the legal rules in taxation, in order to protect the tax payer’s rights. For the first one, abrogation of delegations of legislative power appears desirable and necessary to settle the problem of negligence of legislator’s competence, as well as the depreciation of the tax norms in China. And as for the second one, it is necessary to notice the illegality and irregularities in the execution of the legal rules, which is an obstacle to apply this principle either in the taxation in the proceedings.

A presente pesquisa partiu da constatação de que as transformações pelas quais passa o mundo geram conseqüências em todos os ramos do conhecimento. O estudo foca as mudanças econômicas, filosóficas, sociais e políticas e seus efeitos na prestação da tutela jurisdicional, notadamente no que se refere aos direitos trabalhistas. Assim, inicia demonstrando os contornos do Estado liberal de direito, passa pelo Estado social e chega à crise desse Estado de bem-estar social. A principal apreensão feita em cada capítulo se refere ao modo como o juiz desempenhou suas funções na efetivação dos direitos trabalhistas, para compreender seu papel no Estado da atualidade. A partir da década de 1970 inicia-se a referida crise do modelo de Estado social. Isso ocorre em razão da intensificação do liberalismo, agora neoliberalismo, pela reestruturação produtiva pela qual os países passam, pela globalização e pela formação de uma sociedade de massas. Além disso, tem início um franco processo de tentativa de desregulamentação e flexibilização dos direitos trabalhistas, bem como de diminuição da importância do Estado. Por tais razões, buscamos defender a importância de o magistrado conhecer a realidade em que atua, a fim de entendê-la e inserir-se no contexto de vida dos jurisdicionados. Dessa forma, cremos que será possível maior amplitude de efetivação dos direitos trabalhistas. Os instrumentos utilizados pelo juiz são encontrados dentro do próprio ordenamento jurídico e são justificados pela adequada e profunda fundamentação das decisões. De fato, buscamos mostrar que o juiz pode utilizar-se de mecanismos simples disponibilizados pelo próprio sistema jurídico, ou advindos da criatividade jurídica, para realizar sua função social. Interpretar e aplicar o direito de forma vinculada ao contexto histórico no qual se inserem as partes da demanda. Com esta finalidade é que a tese caminha por essa evolução da filosofia, da sociedade, da política, da economia, da ciência do direito e da própria aplicação do direito ao caso concreto. Enfim, pretende-se demonstrar que a qualidade da prestação jurisdicional e o nível de efetivação dos direitos trabalhistas em tempos de crise do Estado estão intimamente ligados à qualificação ética, intelectual e humana dos juízes, que devem adotar uma posição ativa no desempenho de suas funções. Ativo, porém, no sentido de o juiz estar preparado para extrair do ordenamento jurídico o que é juridicamente válido para fundamentar suas decisões e efetivar os direitos trabalhistas. / This survey came out of the realization that the changes the world undergoes affect all areas of knowledge. The paper concentrates on economical, philosophical, social and political changes and their effects in the temporary relief, specifically in relation to the labor laws. Thus, it starts displaying the outline of the liberal rule of law; it goes through the social State and gets to the crisis of this social welfare State. The major concern in each section regards the way the justice performed his functions in bringing about the labor rights, as a means of understanding his role in the State today. As of the 1970s, the aforementioned crisis of the social State model is formed. This is due to the enhancement of liberalism, currently referred to as neo-liberalism, to the productive restructuring that has affected most countries, to the globalization and the formation of a mass society. Aside from that, one can perceive the birth of a clear process that aims at experiencing deregulation and flexibility of labor laws and the loss of importance of the State. Therefore, we aim at defending how important it is for the Justice to be familiar with the reality on which his work is grounded, so he can understand it and include it in the context of the partys life. Therefore, we believe that it will be possible to reach broader effectiveness of the labor rights. The legal tools used by justices will be found within the legal system itself and find grounds on the appropriate and profound basis of decisions. In fact, we aim at showing that the justice can make use of simple mechanisms that are available within the legal system itself, or of those derived from the legal creativity, to accomplish his social role. To interpret and use the right linked with the historical context containing parts of the demand. Aiming at this purpose, the thesis moves through this evolution of the philosophy, society, politics, economics, legal science and of the own application of the Law to the concrete case. At last, we intend to show that the quality of the legal service and the level of effectiveness of the labor rights during State crisis are closely connected to the ethical, intellectual and human qualification of the justices who should chose to adopt an active position on the development of their functions. We say active, however, in the sense that the justice should be prepared to extract from the legal disposition, which is legally enforceable to ground his decisions and to effect the labor laws.

Com base no que Platão estabelece para a formação do guardião da cidade, neste trabalho, foi analisado o desenvolvimento da educação em direitos humanos, no Curso de Formação de Oficiais da Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo, seus reflexos na atividade policial e seus efeitos na sociedade. Tendo como referência documentos legais e exemplos práticos, foi proposta uma nova forma de educação em direitos humanos, através da criação, por lei, de uma comissão de monitoramento composta por membros da sociedade civil, cuja finalidade é assegurar a transparência e o efetivo controle social em tão importante tema, visando a supremacia da dignidade humana e do Estado de Direito / Taking into consideration what Plato establishes for the formation of the guardian of the city, this essay analyzed the development of education in human rights, in the Graduation Course for Officers of São Paulo State Military Police, its repercussions on police activity and its effects in society. Considering as reference legal documents and practical examples, it was proposed a new model of education in human rights, through the creation by law of a monitoring committee formed by members of the civil society, whose purpose is to ensure transparency and an effective social control in such an important issue aiming the supremacy of human dignity and the Rule-of-Law.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:33:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cristiane Paniagua de Souza Palaro.pdf: 5281727 bytes, checksum: 90210fe886cb04c3dd76de34482aea71 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-05 / This work is situated in Critical Discourse Analysis, with social-cognitive component and is subject to social representation based on the creation of different social roles of one accused of double homicide that by putting into practice his speech, uses the language to be able achieve the proposed goals during the interaction occurred in the scenario of police testimony. It has the general objective of contributing to the practice of discourse, represented in language, and that, being based on the influence exerted by social representation made through the development of social roles, are able to persuade his audience, due to be cut as private interests linked to cultural values and the institutional discourse itself. It has been of specific objectives: i) examine how the speech police was built behind the development of social roles Greyhounds in particular interests, ii) identify the context in this scenario the police investigation, and iii) consider that the language in Use predominant factor is that the social representation can achieve success in the process of social interaction that occurred between individuals endowed with different interests. The analysis procedure applied to this thesis is theoretical, analytical and focused on triad- Speaking-Societ-Cognition. The results that the discourse based upon social representation is geared to the creation of social roles, so it can satisfy the particular interests of each individual involved in the process of social interection. It was concluded that the scenario of the depositions is structured according to the global context because it is grounded in the categories of Power, Control and Access, which your representation is the rule of law to enforce laws that can dictate the rules of coexistence and the local context, characterized by particular discursive events arising in and through discourse / Este trabalho está situado na Análise Crítica do Discurso, com vertente sócio-cognitiva e tem por tema a representação social baseada na criação de diferentes papéis sociais de um acusado de duplo homicídio que, ao colocar em prática o seu discurso, recorre à língua para poder atingir os objetivos propostos durante a interação ocorrida no cenário policial dos depoimentos. Tem-se por objetivo geral contribuir com a prática do discurso, representado em língua, e que, por estar baseado na influência exercida pela representação social constituída por meio da elaboração de papéis sociais, são capazes de persuadir o seu auditório, em razão de ser lapidado conforme interesses particulares associados aos valores culturais e com o próprio discurso institucional. Tem-se por objetivos específicos: i) analisar a forma como foi construído o discurso policial subjacente à elaboração de papéis sociais galgados em interesses particulares; ii) identificar o contexto presente no cenário da investigação policial; e iii) considerar que a língua em uso é fator predominante para que a representação social possa alcançar sucesso no decorrer do processo de interação social ocorrida entre indivíduos dotados de interesses diferentes. O procedimento de análise aplicado a esta dissertação é teórico-analítico e privilegiou a tríade Discurso-Sociedade e Cognição. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o discurso elaborado com base na representação social está voltado à criação de papéis sociais, a fim de que possa atender aos interesses particulares de cada indivíduo envolvido em processo de interação social. Concluiu-se que o cenário dos depoimentos está estruturado de acordo com o contexto global por basear-se nas categorias do Poder, do Controle e do Acesso, cuja sua representação é o Estado de Direito ao aplicar leis capazes de ditar regras de convivência e, do contexto local, por caracterizar eventos discursivos particulares constituídos no e pelo discurso

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:19:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Augusto Neves Dal Pozzo.pdf: 510450 bytes, checksum: eca0c7147c0127e2a6414e9513a8cb74 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-26 / This study aims at furthering the understanding of some of the main aspects of the public service institutes under Brazilian law. To this end, a two-pronged approach was adopted firstly focusing on "public service under the Social Rule of Law", and secondly on the "legal regime of the public service under Brazilian law ; thus having to leave aside aspects related to the rendering of said services. In the first part of this study, we offer a legal logics-based digression concerning the Rule of Law and it having become the Social Rule of Law as of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988; therefore we examine the influence of this new model over the preexisting public services as well as over those services created to materialize the social rights under the 1988 Charter. The second part of this study aims at providing the reader with a comprehensive view of the normative archetype overreaching public service under Brazilian law. To achieve our goal, it was indispensible to address the features governing public service institutes as originally conceived in France, and therefore identifying the criteria or requisites that universal legal doctrine has adopted to describe the legal phenomenon at issue. Next, we examined the institutes under Brazilian law in order to identify which requisites account for public services in Brazil. The definition of public service together with its governing principles is therefore the main focus of this study. Following this, we looked into the public services found under the text of the 1988 Constitution. Lastly, we attempt to demonstrate that one cannot speak of a "crisis of the notion of public services", because it is not possible to state that its legal regime has undergone any change due to the constitutionally-enshrined Social Rule of Law, which has as a fundamental aspect the rendering of public services responsible for ensuring the social rights of citizens, without leaving aside and failing to implement services offering the necessary conditions and means to ensure respect for the life of individuals / O presente estudo tem como objetivo o exame de alguns dos principais aspectos do instituto do serviço público no direito brasileiro. Para realizar essa tarefa, sua abordagem foi dividida em duas partes: a primeira, enfocando o serviço público no contexto do Estado Social de Direito e, a segunda, examinando o regime jurídico do serviço público no direito brasileiro , descartando-se a análise de aspectos relacionados a sua prestação. Na primeira parte, promoveu-se uma digressão lógico-jurídica atinente ao Estado de Direito e sua transformação em Estado Social de Direito, este consagrado pela Constituição Federal de 1988, examinando-se a influência desse modelo nos serviços públicos já existentes e, bem assim, em relação àqueles que foram instituídos para dar concretude aos direitos sociais. A segunda parte do trabalho busca conferir ao leitor um panorama completo sobre o arquétipo normativo a que se encontra subsumido o serviço público no direito brasileiro. Para cumprir essa tarefa, imprescindível se tornou o exame das características que nortearam o instituto tal como concebido originalmente em França, identificando os critérios ou requisitos que a doutrina universal utilizou para descrever essa realidade jurídica. Após essa análise, examina-se o instituto no direito brasileiro, de forma a identificar quais os requisitos constitutivos do serviço público no Brasil. O conceito de serviço público passa a ser, então, o foco principal do estudo, a par dos princípios que o informam. Na continuidade, investiga-se os serviços públicos que se encontram compreendidos na Constituição Federal de 1988. Finalmente, demonstra-se que é impróprio falar-se em crise da noção de serviço público , porque não se pode afirmar que o seu regime jurídico tenha sofrido alteração e, principalmente, por conta do Estado Social de Direito Brasileiro, que tem, como aspecto fundante, a prestação dos serviços públicos responsáveis pela efetivação dos direitos sociais, sem deixar de lado e implementar aqueles que oferecem condições e comodidades para a dignidade da pessoa humana