Mercosul: o direito da integração e a cláusula democrática.

Abstract

This paper discusses the Integration Law and the Democratic Clause in MERCOSUR. Its purpose is to report and discuss the ongoing regional integration process in the American subcontinent, presenting the results obtained with the adoption of the institutional arrangement as the preferred channel for interlocution by States Parties with international organizations. The process of globalization has driven states to pursue ever more intense trade relations; it is a fact that such a process induces regional integration and multilateralism. However, we cannot do without in this context the discussion between regional integration and democracy given the interdependence of concepts in the ongoing integration process. Generally speaking, the concept of democracy is well worked out in domestic legal instruments, where respect for human rights and fundamental rights are safeguarded in their respective Charter. However, the application of the democratic clause within the bloc has been subjectively and strategically by the states parties. Such an approach is based on the transformations and contradictions within MERCOSUR, the relations between States Parties and other Southern Cone countries, as well as the bloc's relations with other international actors. To examine such possibilities, as well as others, approached in the present work, a descriptive research about the objectives, and bibliographic about the procedures, was performed through the deductive method. We divided the work into three chapters. In the first chapter, it discusses the multilateral trading system from its emergence to the present day, with attention to GATT Art. XXIV, which deals with the exception for regional blocs, Integration Law, and International Economic Law. In the second chapter, we dealt with MERCOSUR, from its previous negotiations, through the history of the constitution and its normative structure, its advances and setbacks, and the current moment. In the third chapter, we discuss the application of the MERCOSUR Democratic Clause, the Ushuaia Protocols to recent events involving the suspension of Paraguay in 2012, and subsequently the suspension of Venezuela in 2017, as well as the prospects for the bloc.