This Article identifies and analyzes the growing impact that violence and lack of security have had on legal institutions in Brazil. In particular, we examine the emergence of what we term adaptive policies, for which we mean policies that seek to adapt an existing or proposed legal regime to a state of violence that is taken as given. In contrast to traditional repressive policies, which typically weaken individual rights of potential aggressors to promote greater public security, adaptive policies strengthen the individual rights of potential victims to the detriment of other public policies and social values. We argue that adaptive policies have gained importance in different areas of Brazilian law, ranging from administrative law and securities regulation to traffic rules. We suggest, however, that adaptive policies should not be adopted without careful consideration of their implications in terms of efficiency and distribution. Even though adaptive policies expand the scope of individual rights, they may do so to the detriment of other relevant public policies and values.
Public policies; security; Adaptive policies; Fundamental rights; Transparency; Accountability
