Revista de la Facultad de Derecho

Contracts and Promises in the Dynamics of Personal Relationships

Diego M. Papayannis — 2025-05-20

This paper explores the role of contracts and promises in managing our personal relationships. It critically examines the tradition of viewing contracts as promises, with particular focus on the theories of Charles Fried and Dori Kimel. After outlining the main theses of each theory, the paper discusses some of the challenges they face in accounting for the contractual phenomenon. It concludes by suggesting that while both promises and contracts
serve important functions of coordination, cooperation, and socialization, only contracts enable us to engage with others in highly complex collective endeavours. This capacity significantly expands personal autonomy in a way that promises and other informal arrangements cannot match.

The power of the executive branch to object to or comment on draft legislation and the alternatives for parliamentary response in the Uruguayan Constitution

Diego Gamarra Antes — 2025-07-29

This text provides an interpretation of Articles 137 and subsequent articles of the Uruguayan Constitution, which refer to the Executive Branch's power to oppose bills passed by the Legislative Branch, and the alternatives available to the General Assembly when exercising such power. Specifically: (a) it is alleged that the scenarios of mere objection, which aim to frustrate the bill, must be distinguished from those that present observations, which aim to approve the bill but with a different text; (b) it is argued that the latter may consist of proposals for deletion, substitution or addition of provisions or parts of provisions of the bill; and (c) it is proposed that Article 138 refers exclusively to a pronouncement on objections and observations, and that the power of disapproval is regulated differently in Article 140. It is therefore concluded that, under the current constitutional regulations following the 1996 plebiscite reform, the special majority set out in Article 138 does not apply to the disapproval of a bill returned by the Executive Branch.

Structural litigation in Brazilian constitutional jurisdiction: a study in light of the Ius Constitutionale Commune Latino-Americano

Mônia Clarissa Hennig Leal — 2025-08-07

Complex issues, such as structural discrimination, often require structural judicial measures, typically applied to resolve structural litigation. These cases raise concerns about how the judicial handling of such processes has been conducted within the Brazilian legal context. In this context, the objective is to determine whether the incorporation of the structural litigation perspective into Brazilian legal practice has led to changes in the judicial procedures for addressing and resolving structural issues by the Supreme Federal Court, as well as to analyze the procedural rules adopted by the Supreme Federal Court in adjudicating structural litigation within its jurisdiction. To this end, a deductive approach, analytical procedural method, and jurisprudential and bibliographic research techniques were employed. It is concluded that, to provide qualified responses to the structural issues adjudicated by the Supreme Federal Court, specialized units specifically aimed at identifying and addressing these types of demands have been established. Concerning jurisprudence, it can be observed that it is increasingly common to recognize the structural bias of cases brought before the STF, moving towards the development of a leading case in structural litigation within the jurisprudence of the highest Brazilian court.