# Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957

> Brazilian law

**Wikidata**: [Q105649276](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105649276)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/law-no-3203-of-july-10-1957

## Summary
Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957 is a Brazilian federal statute promulgated by President Juscelino Kubitschek that authorized a special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial) for the Ministry of War to allocate funds to municipalities in the state of Alagoas. This legislative act represents a specific budgetary allocation measure within Brazil's statutory framework during the mid-20th century.

## Key Facts
- **Official Title**: Lei nº 3203, de 10 de julho de 1957
- **Legal Citation**: Lei nº 3203/1957
- **Publication Date**: July 10, 1957
- **Promulgating Authority**: Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
- **President at Time of Promulgation**: Juscelino Kubitschek
- **Determination Method**: Promulgation
- **Legal Classification**: Instance of a statute (formal written document that creates law)
- **Primary Subject Matter**: Special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial)
- **Ministry Involved**: Ministry of War of Brazil (Ministério Da Guerra)
- **Geographic Scope**: State of Alagoas (Estado De Alagoas (Al))
- **Administrative Level**: Municipality (Município)
- **Jurisdiction**: Applies to Brazil
- **Place of Publication**: Rio de Janeiro
- **Language**: Brazilian Portuguese
- **LexML Brazil Identifier**: urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1957-07-10;3203
- **Official URL**: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l3203.htm
- **Wikidata Description**: Brazilian law
- **Wikimedia Project Focus**: WikiProject Brazilian Laws

## FAQs
**What is Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957?**  
Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957 is a federal statute that authorized a special budgetary credit for the Ministry of War to disburse funds specifically to municipalities within the state of Alagoas, representing a targeted fiscal allocation during President Kubitschek's administration.

**Who approved this law and through what process?**  
The law was approved by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil through the determination method of promulgation on July 10, 1957, under the signature of President Juscelino Kubitschek.

**What type of legal instrument is this law?**  
This law is classified as a statute, which is a formal written document that creates law and serves as the concrete manifestation of statutory law, encompassing acts, executive orders, and by-laws as foundational legal instruments.

**What specific subjects does the law address?**  
The law addresses four interconnected subjects: a special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial), the Ministry of War of Brazil (Ministério Da Guerra), the state of Alagoas (Estado De Alagoas (Al)), and the municipal level of government (Município).

**Where was this law published and in what language?**  
The law was published in Rio de Janeiro, which served as Brazil's capital at the time, and was written in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of all federal legislation.

**How can researchers access the full text of this law?**  
The full text is digitally available at the official URL https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l3203.htm, maintained by the Brazilian federal government's legislative archive system.

**What is the standardized identification number for this law?**  
The law carries the LexML Brazil identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1957-07-10;3203, which provides a unique, persistent URN-based reference within Brazil's legal document metadata system.

## Why It Matters
Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957 matters as a concrete example of Brazil's mid-20th century budgetary legislation, demonstrating how the federal government during the Kubitschek era (1956-1961) exercised fiscal authority to direct resources to specific states and municipalities through ministerial channels. As a statute, it represents the tangible manifestation of statutory law, providing documented evidence of the executive branch's power to allocate special credits (Crédito Especial) for military-related expenditures at the subnational level. The law's specificity to Alagoas municipalities reveals the granular level of federal budgetary control during this period, while its classification under WikiProject Brazilian Laws indicates its inclusion in systematic efforts to digitize and organize Brazil's legislative heritage. The preservation of this law in the Planalto's digital archive with a LexML identifier ensures its accessibility for historical research, legal precedent analysis, and understanding of Brazil's administrative evolution. Its existence as a public domain document, consistent with the edict of government doctrine that exempts official legal texts from copyright, guarantees that citizens and scholars can freely examine the legislative mechanisms that governed resource distribution during a pivotal era of Brazilian development.

## Notable For
- **Precise Temporal Specification**: Enacted on the specific date of July 10, 1957, during a defined presidential term
- **Presidential Attribution**: Directly associated with President Juscelino Kubitschek's promulgation authority
- **Budgetary Mechanism**: Employs the special credit (Crédito Especial) instrument for extraordinary fiscal allocation
- **Military Ministry Targeting**: Specifically names the Ministry of War (Ministério Da Guerra) as the administering body
- **Subnational Focus**: Restricts application exclusively to municipalities within the state of Alagoas
- **Digital Preservation**: Maintained in official digital archives with persistent URL access more than six decades after enactment
- **Standardized Identification**: Assigned a formal LexML URN identifier for machine-readable legal document retrieval
- **Wikimedia Documentation**: Included in WikiProject Brazilian Laws, indicating systematic cataloging in collaborative knowledge bases
- **Publication Location**: Originated from Rio de Janeiro, reflecting the capital's geographic coordinates at latitude -14°, longitude -53° during the pre-Brasília era
- **Language Specificity**: Drafted in Brazilian Portuguese, distinguishing it from other Portuguese-speaking jurisdictions' legal texts

## Body

### Legal Identity and Classification
Law No. 3203 of July 10, 1957 is formally identified by its Portuguese title "Lei nº 3203, de 10 de julho de 1957" and carries the standardized legal citation "Lei nº 3203/1957". As an instance of a statute, it belongs to the class of formal written documents that create law, encompassing acts, executive orders, and by-laws. This classification positions the law as a foundational legal concept that serves as the manifestation of statutory law, composed of legal norms and created through the legislative process. The law is described in Wikidata as a "Brazilian law" and is formally classified under the WikiProject Brazilian Laws, indicating its inclusion in systematic efforts to organize Brazil's legislative corpus.

### Promulgation and Publication
The law was approved by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil through the determination method of promulgation on July 10, 1957. President Juscelino Kubitschek exercised executive authority to enact this budgetary measure during his presidential term. The publication occurred in Rio de Janeiro, which functioned as Brazil's capital city from 1763 until 1960 when the capital transitioned to Brasília. The document was published in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil, which is spoken by approximately 213.4 million residents across the nation's 8,515,767 km² territory.

### Subject Matter and Scope
The law's main subjects reveal its specific administrative purpose. It authorized a special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial) — a mechanism for extraordinary fiscal allocation outside regular budgetary processes. The administering body was the Ministry of War of Brazil (Ministério Da Guerra), the federal agency responsible for military affairs during the period preceding the 1999 transformation into the Ministry of Defence. The geographic scope was limited to the state of Alagoas (Estado De Alagoas (Al)), one of Brazil's 26 states, located in the Northeast Region with coordinates approximately latitude -9.5°, longitude -36.5°. The target administrative level was the municipality (Município), Brazil's primary local government unit, of which Alagoas contains 102 municipalities including its capital Maceió.

### Digital Accessibility and Identification
The law is digitally preserved and accessible through multiple official channels. The full text is available at the URL https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l3203.htm, maintained by the Civilian House of the Presidency of the Republic. It carries the LexML Brazil identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1957-07-10;3203, which follows the URN:LEX standard for legal document identification in Brazil. This identifier structure specifies the jurisdiction (br:federal), document type (lei), date (1957-07-10), and number (3203). The law applies to the jurisdiction of Brazil, a federal republic with a presidential system that has operated under its current Constitution since October 5, 1988, though this law predates that constitutional framework.

### Historical and Administrative Context
Enacted during the presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961), this law reflects the developmentalist policies of an era marked by the construction of Brasília and ambitious infrastructure projects. The Ministry of War's involvement indicates military-related expenditures were processed through special budgetary channels rather than regular appropriations. The focus on Alagoas municipalities suggests targeted federal intervention at the local level, possibly for security or civil-military cooperation purposes. As a statute created through legislation, the law followed draft laws in the legislative process and resulted in statutory law applicable throughout Brazil's federated system, which includes 26 states plus one Federal District. The law's existence as a public domain document aligns with Brazil's adherence to principles ensuring public access to official legal texts, consistent with global practices where statutes are exempt from copyright restrictions.

## References

1. [Source](https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1957-07-10;3203)
2. [Source](https://legislacao.presidencia.gov.br/atos?tipo=LEI&numero=3203&ano=1957&data=10/07/1957&ato=5a4Iza65UMNRVTcb5)