The Ação Popular in the Mozambican Legal Order Vis a Vis The Brazilian Legal Order and the Portuguese Legal Order

Uma Análise dos Regimes Jurídicos Moçambicano, Brasileiro e Português

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the figure of ação popular action in the Mozambican Legal System. Being a Constitutional means of access to justice, the legal regime of the ação popular in the Mozambican legal system raises questions worthy of analysis, as being a crucial mechanism for the materialization of the fundamental rights of citizens. The ação popular in Mozambique does not clarify, for example, questions such as who has active and passive legitimacy; what is the protected object; and what kinds of action can be brought, as is the case, for example, in Portugal, where the ação popular can be individual (single or multiple authorship) or collective (whose legitimacy is conferred on associations and foundations that defend public health, environment, quality of life). On the other hand, it is not clear, in the Mozambican legal system, the scenarios in which, in order to hold the right of ação popular, the active subjects must or must not prove the enjoyment of their civil and political rights, and whether this right extends to associations and foundations, or whether the ação popular is seen as a true fundamental right that encompasses the protection and defense of administrative morality, the environment and the historical and cultural heritage, and, therefore, with the corollary of being a guarantee of a high level constitutional law, which, in the form of a civil action, its protection is required through a special litigation process, with active and passive parties, to be decided by the court, as happens in Brazil. However, the truth is that in Mozambique the ação popular is an expression of the fundamental right of access to the courts, and is distinguished from all other types of legal mechanisms of access to justice by its object and other determining criteria. To make the study, we resorted to the bibliographic review, and the conclusion we reached is that there are several differences between the three analyzed regimes, whose mutual study can allow the improvement of the Mozambican legal systems.

KEYWORDS: Ação Popular. Legal Order. Brazil. Mozambique. Brasil. Portugal.