# Law No. 4063 of May 19, 1962

> Brazilian law

**Wikidata**: [Q105648198](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105648198)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/law-no-4063-of-may-19-1962

## Summary
Law No. 4063 of May 19, 1962 is a Brazilian statute promulgated by President João Goulart that authorized a special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial) for the Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação). Enacted during a pivotal period in Brazil's pre-military rule era, this federal law represents a formal legislative instrument documented through the country's LexML system and serves as a specific example of statutory budgetary allocation within Brazil's legal framework.

## Key Facts
- **Official Title**: Lei nº 4063, de 19 de maio de 1962
- **Legal Citation**: Lei nº 4063/1962
- **Promulgation Date**: May 19, 1962
- **Promulgating Authority**: Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
- **President at Time of Promulgation**: João Goulart
- **Determination Method**: Promulgation (approved_by with determination_method: 'promulgation')
- **Legal Classification**: Instance of "statute" (formal written document that creates law)
- **Jurisdictional Application**: Applies to Brazil (federal jurisdiction)
- **Place of Publication**: Brasília
- **Language**: Brazilian Portuguese
- **LexML Brazil Identifier**: urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-05-19;4063
- **Main Subjects**: Special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial), Ministry of Education (Ministério Da Educação (Mec)), and allocation/destination (Destinação)
- **Full Text Available At**: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4063.htm
- **Wikimedia Project Focus**: WikiProject Brazilian Laws

## FAQs
**What is Law No. 4063 of May 19, 1962?**
Law No. 4063 is a Brazilian federal statute enacted on May 19, 1962, that created a special budgetary credit (Crédito Especial) designated for the Ministry of Education, representing a formal legislative allocation of financial resources within Brazil's federal budget.

**Who signed this law into effect?**
President João Goulart promulgated Law No. 4063 on May 19, 1962, exercising his executive authority under the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil during his administration.

**What type of legal document is this?**
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 passed by legislatures, executive orders, and by-laws.

**What was the primary purpose of this legislation?**
The statute authorized a special budgetary adjustment specifically for the Ministry of Education (Ministério Da Educação), with provisions addressing the allocation and destination (Destinação) of these funds.

**Where can researchers access the original text?**
The complete official text is permanently available at the URL https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4063.htm, hosted by the Brazilian government's official legislative repository.

**How is this law formally identified in legal citations?**
The standard legal citation is "Lei nº 4063/1962," following Brazilian legislative citation conventions that combine the law number with the year of enactment.

**Under what country's legal system does this statute operate?**
Law No. 4063 applies exclusively 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 constitution.

**In what language was the law originally drafted and published?**
The law was published in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of Brazil and the sole language used for all federal legislative acts and official government documents.

## Why It Matters
Law No. 4063 of May 19, 1962 matters because it exemplifies the statutory mechanism through which Brazil's federal government allocates special budgetary resources to specific ministries, demonstrating the legislative process during João Goulart's presidency—a period marked by political tension preceding the 1964 military coup. As a statute, it represents one of the foundational legal instruments that enable executive branch operations, providing the Ministry of Education with extraordinary financial capacity beyond regular budgetary allocations. The law's preservation in the LexML system and its inclusion in WikiProject Brazilian Laws ensures its permanent accessibility for historical research, legal precedent analysis, and governance studies. Its existence illuminates how Brazil's pre-military rule government used legislative tools to address educational funding needs, offering contemporary scholars insight into the policy priorities and administrative structures of early 1960s Brazil. Furthermore, the law's classification as a public domain document under the edict of government doctrine ensures that citizens, researchers, and legal practitioners can freely examine the exact text and provisions, reinforcing principles of governmental transparency and the rule of law that remain relevant to Brazil's modern democratic framework.

## Notable For
- **Historical Timing**: Enacted during João Goulart's controversial presidency, less than two years before the 1964 military coup that suspended democratic governance until 1985
- **Specific Budgetary Mechanism**: Authorized a "Crédito Especial" (special credit), a distinctive Brazilian legislative tool for extraordinary budgetary adjustments outside the regular appropriations process
- **Educational Focus**: Dedicated funding specifically to the Ministry of Education (Ministério Da Educação), reflecting policy priorities of the early 1960s Brazilian government
- **Permanent Digital Preservation**: Assigned a permanent URN identifier (urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-05-19;4063) through Brazil's LexML system, ensuring long-term digital accessibility
- **Wikimedia Documentation**: Featured in WikiProject Brazilian Laws, indicating its recognition as a significant legislative text within collaborative knowledge projects
- **Capital City Origin**: Published in Brasília, the planned capital that had only become the administrative center two years prior in 1960, representing early legislative activity from the new federal district
- **Statutory Classification**: Serves as a concrete example of a "statute" in legal taxonomy, classified as both a written work and a rule with specific jurisdictional application
- **Public Domain Status**: Like all Brazilian statutes, exists in the public domain under the edict of government doctrine, ensuring unrestricted public access to the legal text

## Body

### Legal Classification and Nature
Law No. 4063 of May 19, 1962 is formally classified as a "statute," which represents a foundational legal concept defined as a formal written document that creates law. As a statutory instrument, it functions as a manifestation of statutory law and contains legal norms as constituent parts. The law follows draft legislation and was caused by the legislative process culminating in presidential promulgation. Structurally, it belongs to the broader categories of law and legal act while being taxonomically distinct from general concepts of legislation. The statute is composed in Brazilian Portuguese and serves as an official record of a legal rule enacted by the federal government. Its creation followed the standard Brazilian legislative trajectory where proposed bills undergo congressional review before presidential approval. The law's status as a statute means it is considered a subclass of written work, document, and rule, making it equivalent to the schema.org/Legislation class used in structured data systems.

### Historical and Political Context
The law emerged from Brazil's Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil under President João Goulart, who served as head of state and government during a turbulent period in Brazilian political history. Enacted on May 19, 1962, the statute predates Brazil's 1988 Constitution and reflects the legal framework of the earlier republican period. At the time of promulgation, Brazil operated as a federal republic with a presidential system, though the government would face a military coup in 1964 that suspended democratic institutions for over two decades. The law's origin in Brasília is significant, as the city had only served as Brazil's capital since April 22, 1960, representing a shift from Rio de Janeiro to the newly constructed federal district designed by Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa. This legislative act occurred during Brazil's existence as a sovereign state since 1822, when independence from Portugal was declared on September 7 of that year.

### Publication and Digital Accessibility
The statute was officially published in Brasília on May 19, 1962, establishing its effective date and public notice. The full legislative text remains permanently accessible through the official URL https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4063.htm, hosted by the Brazilian federal government's legislative portal. This digital preservation aligns with Brazil's commitment to open government principles, ensuring that statutes remain in the public domain and freely accessible to all citizens. The law carries the LexML Brazil identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-05-19;4063, which provides a standardized, permanent Uniform Resource Name for legal citation and retrieval. This identifier system facilitates integration with digital legal databases and academic research tools. The publication in Brazilian Portuguese reflects the country's constitutional designation of Portuguese as the sole official language for all governmental and legislative functions.

### Subject Matter and Legislative Scope
The statute's main subject matter centers on three interconnected elements: a special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial), the Ministry of Education (Ministério Da Educação), and provisions for allocation or destination (Destinação) of funds. This combination indicates the law authorized extraordinary financial resources specifically for educational purposes, demonstrating the executive branch's use of special credits to address policy priorities. The focus on the Ministry of Education (MEC) places the law within Brazil's federal administrative structure, where the ministry serves as the primary agency for national education policy. The "Destinação" aspect suggests the law contained specific provisions governing how the special credit would be allocated, potentially including purposes, conditions, or temporal limitations. As a federal statute, the law's provisions would have applied uniformly across Brazil's territory, which spans 8,515,767 km² and includes 26 states plus one Federal District.

### Jurisdictional and Geographic Application
Law No. 4063 applies to the entire jurisdiction of Brazil, a country that shares borders with ten nations: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The statute's authority derives from Brazil's federal system, where the National Congress (comprising the Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies) holds legislative power. The law's implementation would involve Brazil's executive branch, which in 1962 was led by President João Goulart as both head of state and head of government. The statute's effect would have extended across Brazil's diverse regions, from the Amazon basin to the Atlantic coast, encompassing a population that has grown from approximately 72.8 million in 1960 to over 213 million today. The law's provisions would be interpreted and applied within Brazil's civil law tradition, which derives from Portuguese legal heritage.

### Linguistic and Documentary Characteristics
The law was drafted, debated, and published exclusively in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language established since Brazil's independence and currently spoken by over 200 million people. As a formal statute, the document follows standardized Brazilian legislative formatting, including numbered articles, paragraphs, and clauses typical of federal laws from the 1950-1969 period. The legal citation format "Lei nº 4063/1962" reflects Brazilian conventions that facilitate reference and indexing in legal databases and court decisions. The law's text would have been printed in the Diário Oficial da União (Official Federal Gazette) on its publication date, creating the official record of its enactment. The document's language would employ formal legal terminology consistent with other statutes of the era, using precise technical vocabulary for budgetary and administrative matters.

### Integration with Knowledge Systems and Authority Control
Law No. 4063 appears on the focus list of WikiProject Brazilian Laws, indicating its inclusion in Wikipedia's collaborative effort to document Brazilian legislation. This project ensures the law's metadata is systematically organized and cross-referenced with related legislative acts. The statute benefits from the extensive authority control systems applied to Brazilian laws, including cataloging under the Dewey Decimal classification system (342.057 and 348.02 for statutes generally). While the specific Library of Congress Authority ID for this individual law is not provided, statutes as a class hold the identifier sh85127611, and Brazil as a jurisdiction holds multiple authority IDs including the GND ID 4020660-9 and BnF ID 120485802. The law's digital presence through the LexML system and official government portal ensures its discoverability through search engines and legal research platforms, with the Google Knowledge Graph and BabelNet indexing statutes as a class.

### Comparative Statutory Context
As a 1962 statute, Law No. 4063 belongs to a period of significant legislative activity in Brazil during the early 1960s, preceding the institutional breakdown of 1964. The law shares characteristics with other statutes of its era in terms of structure, language, and administrative purpose. Its focus on special budgetary credits reflects a common governmental technique for addressing urgent funding needs without revising the entire federal budget. The law's relationship to the Ministry of Education places it within a policy domain that has consistently received legislative attention across different Brazilian administrations. Unlike modern statutes that might include sunset clauses or detailed accountability mechanisms, laws from this period typically employed more concise language, delegating implementation details to regulatory decrees. The statute's existence demonstrates the continuity of Brazil's legislative tradition, which persists through the current Constitution of 1988 and remains fundamental to the country's representative democracy and rule of law framework.

## References

1. [Source](https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-05-19;4063)
2. [Source](https://legislacao.presidencia.gov.br/atos?tipo=LEI&numero=4063&ano=1962&data=19/05/1962&ato=e33cXR61kMVRVT031)