Public procurement and the convergence between Adminis-trative Sanctions Law and Collective Criminal Law

Abstract

This article examines the intersection between Administrative Sanctions Law and Collective Criminal Law in the context of Brazilian public procurement, taking Law No. 14,133/2021 as its normative framework. It aims to analyze how the convergence of these branches of the State’s ius puniendi affects legal certainty and the protection of collective interests. The study is grounded in the rational-teleological functionalism of Claus Roxin, particularly his theory of legal interests and the criteria of objective imputation. Methodologically, it adopts a hypothetico-deductive approach based on bibliographic and documentary research. The analysis shows that public procurement transcends a merely procedural function, operating as a subsystem for safeguarding probity and competitiveness, both of which are collective legal interests. The findings point to overlapping areas and unclear boundaries between administrative sanctions law and criminal law. The article concludes that the punitive framework established by the new Public Procurement Law should be interpreted in a coordinated manner, ensuring that administrative sanctions do not devolve into uncritical punitive pragmatism, but instead function as a normative mechanism that interacts with, without conflating itself with, criminal law protection.

Keywords: Public Procurement; Administrative Sanctioning Law; Supraindividual Criminal Law; Claus Roxin; Legal Assets.