# Law No. 4165 of December 4, 1962

> Brazilian law

**Wikidata**: [Q105648424](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105648424)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/law-no-4165-of-december-4-1962

## Summary
Law No. 4165 of December 4, 1962 is a Brazilian federal statute that modified the National Road Plan and opened a special credit of CR$1,000,000,000.00 for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works. Promulgated by President João Goulart in Brasília, this law represents a formal legislative enactment within Brazil's federal republic system, published in Brazilian Portuguese and cataloged under the LexML identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-12-04;4165.

## Key Facts
- **Official Title:** Lei nº 4165, de 4 de dezembro de 1962
- **Legal Citation:** Lei nº 4165/1962
- **Date of Promulgation:** December 4, 1962
- **Promulgated By:** President João Goulart through the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
- **Determination Method:** Promulgation
- **Primary Action:** Modifies the National Road Plan (Plano Rodoviário Nacional)
- **Financial Provision:** Opens a special credit of CR$1,000,000,000.00 (one billion cruzeiros)
- **Responsible Ministry:** Ministry of Transport and Public Works (Ministério da Viação e Obras Públicas)
- **Jurisdiction:** Federative Republic of Brazil
- **Place of Publication:** Brasília
- **Language:** Brazilian Portuguese
- **Legal Classification:** Instance of "statute" (formal written document that creates law)
- **LexML Brazil ID:** urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-12-04;4165
- **Official Text Available At:** https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4165.htm
- **Wikidata Description:** Brazilian law
- **Wikimedia Project:** On focus list of WikiProject Brazilian Laws
- **Dewey Decimal Classification:** 342.057 and 348.02
- **GND ID:** 4020660-9 (German Integrated Authority File)
- **Library of Congress Authority ID:** sh85127611
- **Bibliothèque nationale de France ID:** 120485802
- **National Library of Spain ID:** XX528757
- **Art & Architecture Thesaurus IDs:** 300027891 (statutes), 300027889 (legislative acts)
- **Schema.org Equivalence:** Equivalent class to https://schema.org/Legislation
- **Copyright Status:** Public domain in the United States under the edict of government doctrine and in France
- **Main Subjects:** Special budgetary adjustment (Crédito Especial), Ministry of Transport of Brazil, change (Alteração)

## FAQs
**What did Law No. 4165 of December 4, 1962 accomplish?**  
This law modified Brazil's National Road Plan and authorized a special credit of CR$1,000,000,000.00 specifically for the Ministry of Transport and Public Works to fund related infrastructure projects.

**Who signed Law No. 4165 into effect and when?**  
President João Goulart promulgated the law on December 4, 1962, exercising executive authority within Brazil's presidential federal republic system.

**How much funding did this legislation authorize?**  
The statute opened a special credit totaling CR$1,000,000,000.00 (one billion cruzeiros) for transportation and public works initiatives.

**Where can the original text of this law be accessed?**  
The complete text is publicly available at the official Planalto government portal: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4165.htm.

**What is the LexML identifier for this statute?**  
The law carries the standardized LexML Brazil identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-12-04;4165, which uniquely identifies it within Brazil's legislative metadata system.

**In what language was this law originally published?**  
The statute was published in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

**What type of legal instrument is this?**  
This is a federal statute, classified as a formal written document that creates law and serves as a manifestation of statutory law within Brazil's legal framework.

**Which government ministry was directly affected by this law?**  
The Ministry of Transport and Public Works (Ministério da Viação e Obras Públicas) received the special credit authorization and responsibility for the modified National Road Plan.

## Why It Matters
Law No. 4165 of December 4, 1962 matters because it represents a concrete federal intervention in Brazil's transportation infrastructure during a critical period of national development. By modifying the National Road Plan and allocating CR$1,000,000,000.00 in special credits, the law directly impacted the Ministry of Transport and Public Works' capacity to execute major road construction and maintenance projects, fundamentally shaping the country's physical connectivity and economic integration. The statute exemplifies how Brazil's presidential system enables executive-led legislative action on specific budgetary adjustments, demonstrating the mechanisms of statutory law creation within a federal republic. Its inclusion in WikiProject Brazilian Laws highlights its significance as a cataloged legislative act that researchers, legal professionals, and historians reference when studying mid-20th century Brazilian infrastructure policy. The law's public domain status ensures unrestricted access for public scrutiny, academic analysis, and legal research, reinforcing democratic transparency. Furthermore, its comprehensive metadata footprint across international library systems (Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, German GND) and semantic web standards (Schema.org equivalence) makes it a discoverable and interoperable legal resource in global knowledge graphs, facilitating comparative legal studies and cross-jurisdictional research on transportation legislation.

## Notable For
- **Specific Budgetary Authority:** Uniquely authorized a massive special credit of exactly CR$1,000,000,000.00 for a single ministry's infrastructure mandate.
- **Presidential Promulgation:** Signed by João Goulart during his contentious presidency (1961-1964), a period marked by political instability preceding Brazil's 1964 military coup.
- **LexML Standardization:** Bears a precise LexML URN identifier that follows Brazil's federal legislative naming convention, enabling machine-readable legal document retrieval.
- **Multi-Jurisdictional Cataloging:** Registered across three major international library authority systems (Library of Congress, German GND, French BnF) with distinct classification codes.
- **Public Domain Legal Document:** Exempt from copyright restrictions under U.S. edict of government doctrine and French law, ensuring free distribution and republication.
- **Wikimedia Project Inclusion:** Specifically tracked by WikiProject Brazilian Laws, indicating active curation within the Wikimedia ecosystem for legal documentation.
- **Triple Main Subject Focus:** Classified under three distinct thematic categories in its metadata: special budgetary adjustment, Ministry of Transport, and legislative change.
- **Brasília Publication:** Published in Brazil's capital, which had only become the federal capital two years prior (April 22, 1960), representing early legislative activity in the new seat of government.
- **Schema.org Equivalence:** Serves as a real-world equivalent to the Legislation class in Schema.org's structured data vocabulary, bridging legal documents to web semantics.
- **Dewey Decimal Dual Classification:** Assigned two separate Dewey Decimal numbers (342.057 and 348.02), reflecting its intersection with constitutional law and statutory law categories.

## Body

### Legislative Characteristics and Classification
Law No. 4165 of December 4, 1962 is formally classified as a **statute**, which constitutes a formal written document that creates law within Brazil's federal legal system. As an instance of a legal term or legal concept, it functions as a subclass of written work, document, and rule, serving as the concrete manifestation of statutory law. The law's creation followed draft legislation and was caused by the legislative act of promulgation, resulting in binding statutory law applicable throughout Brazil's jurisdiction. It contains legal norms as constituent parts and operates within the broader categories of law and legal act. The statute is published in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of the Federative Republic of Brazil, a federal republic with a presidential system that has maintained continuous sovereignty since independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822.

### Financial and Administrative Provisions
The statute's primary substantive action was to modify the National Road Plan (Plano Rodoviário Nacional) and open a special credit totaling **CR$1,000,000,000.00** (one billion cruzeiros). This special budgetary adjustment, explicitly stated as "Crédito Especial" in the law's metadata, allocated funds exclusively to the Ministry of Transport and Public Works (Ministério da Viação e Obras Públicas). The law thereby enabled the ministry to undertake significant infrastructure expenditures under the modified national road framework. The third thematic classification assigned to this law is "Alteração" (change), indicating its function as amending legislation rather than original creation.

### Promulgation and Publication Details
President **João Goulart** promulgated the law on **December 4, 1962**, through the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil, with promulgation serving as the determination method for enactment. The publication occurred in **Brasília**, which has served as Brazil's federal capital since April 22, 1960, when the administrative functions transferred from Rio de Janeiro. The law's official citation is **Lei nº 4165/1962**, and it carries the standardized LexML Brazil identifier **urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-12-04;4165**. The complete official text remains publicly accessible at the Planalto government portal URL: https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/1950-1969/l4165.htm.

### Metadata and International Authority Control
The statute is extensively cataloged across global library and knowledge systems. It holds **Library of Congress Authority ID sh85127611**, **GND ID 4020660-9** (German Integrated Authority File where it is categorized as "Gesetz" or statutory regulation), and **Bibliothèque nationale de France ID 120485802**. The National Library of Spain identifies it as **XX528757** under the term "Leyes". The Art & Architecture Thesaurus assigns two relevant entries: **300027891** for statutes as acts of a legislature and **300027889** for legislative acts. The law is classified under Dewey Decimal numbers **342.057** (constitutional law) and **348.02** (statutory law), reflecting its dual legal nature. Additional identifiers include the PACTOLS thesaurus ID pcrt2XKbjOmPcT, BNCF Thesaurus ID 7904, YSO ID 4200, HDS ID 030903, and NDL Authority ID 00563423.

### Semantic Web and Digital Accessibility
In structured data vocabularies, this statute serves as an equivalent class to **https://schema.org/Legislation**, enabling its integration into semantic web applications and knowledge graphs. The entity appears in the Google Knowledge Graph with ID /g/120kn55l and BabelNet ID 00050588n. It is referenced in KBpedia as "Statute" with a 2020-07-09 timestamp. The law is actively curated within the Wikimedia ecosystem through **WikiProject Brazilian Laws**, which focuses on documenting Brazilian legislation. Properties associated with this legislative entity type include P467, P17 (country), P1001 (applies to jurisdiction), P2567, P2568, P3148, P7588, P953, and P9681.

### Copyright and Public Policy Status
As an official legislative enactment, the law is in the **public domain** in the United States under the edict of government doctrine, which holds that judicial opinions, administrative rulings, legislative enactments, and public ordinances are not copyrightable regardless of whether they are Federal, State, or local. A similar public domain status applies in France. This ensures unrestricted public access, republication, and reuse of the legal text for educational, commercial, or research purposes. The law's copyright exemption reinforces the principle that citizens must have free access to the laws that govern them.

### Historical and Political Context
The statute was enacted during João Goulart's presidency (1961-1964), a period of intense political polarization in Brazil that preceded the 1964 military coup. As a federal law promulgated in Brasília, it represents early legislative activity in Brazil's then-new capital, which had officially become the seat of government only two years earlier. The law applies to the entire jurisdiction of the Federative Republic of Brazil, a federal republic that operates under its current Constitution promulgated on October 5, 1988, though this statute predates that constitutional framework. The Ministry of Transport and Public Works, as the designated recipient of the special credit, operated within Brazil's presidential system where the head of state also serves as head of government. The law's focus on national road infrastructure reflects mid-20th century development priorities in South America's largest country, which spans 8,515,767 km² and borders ten nations.

## References

1. [Source](https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1962-12-04;4165)
2. [Source](https://legislacao.presidencia.gov.br/atos?tipo=LEI&numero=4165&ano=1962&data=04/12/1962&ato=9aegXSE5kMVRVT846)
3. LexML Brasil