# Law No. 423 of October 7, 1948

> Brazilian law

**Wikidata**: [Q105649788](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105649788)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/law-no-423-of-october-7-1948

## Summary
Law No. 423 of October 7, 1948 is a Brazilian federal statute that authorized the Ministry of Education and Health to open a special credit for payment of teacher bonuses (Gratificação De Magisterio). Enacted in Rio de Janeiro through presidential promulgation, this law represents a formal legislative instrument in Brazil's statutory framework, identified by the LexML URN `urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423`.

## Key Facts
- **Official Title:** Lei nº 423, de 7 de outubro de 1948
- **Legal Citation:** Lei nº 423/1948
- **Publication Date:** October 7, 1948
- **Place of Publication:** Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- **Legal Type:** Statute (formal written document that creates law, encompassing acts, executive orders, and by-laws)
- **Jurisdiction:** Federative Republic of Brazil
- **Language:** Brazilian Portuguese
- **Promulgating Authority:** Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil
- **Approval Method:** Promulgation on October 7, 1948
- **LexML Identifier:** urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423
- **Primary Purpose:** Authorizes opening of special credit for teacher bonus payments
- **Responsible Agency:** Ministry of Education and Health (Ministerio Da Educação E Saude)
- **Budgetary Mechanism:** Special credit (Credito Especial) for budgetary adjustment
- **Beneficiary Category:** Teachers receiving Gratificação De Magisterio
- **Functional Classification:** Instance of statute, which is a subclass of written work, document, and rule
- **Copyright Status:** As a statute, this document is in the public domain in Brazil and jurisdictions like the United States under the edict of government doctrine
- **Wikidata Description:** Brazilian law
- **Main Subjects:** Special budgetary adjustment, teacher bonuses (Gratificação De Magisterio), Ministry of Education and Health, payment

## FAQs
**What specific action did Law No. 423 of October 7, 1948 authorize?**  
The law authorized the Ministry of Education and Health to open a special credit (Credito Especial) specifically for payment of teacher bonuses known as Gratificação De Magisterio, representing a targeted budgetary adjustment for educator compensation.

**What type of legal instrument is Law No. 423 and how was it enacted?**  
This law is a statute, which is a formal written document that creates law in Brazil. It was enacted through promulgation by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil on October 7, 1948, in Rio de Janeiro.

**Where can this law be located and what is its official identifier?**  
Law No. 423 is cataloged in Brazil's LexML system with the permanent identifier `urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423` and was published in Rio de Janeiro, which served as Brazil's capital at the time of enactment.

**What jurisdiction does this law apply to and in what language was it written?**  
The law applies exclusively to the Federative Republic of Brazil and was originally drafted and published in Brazilian Portuguese, the country's official language.

## Why It Matters
Law No. 423 of October 7, 1948 exemplifies the statutory mechanism through which Brazil's federal government addresses specific public sector compensation needs. As a statute, it represents the concrete manifestation of statutory law—the tangible written record that transforms legislative intent into enforceable budgetary authority. This law matters because it demonstrates how mid-20th century Brazil used special credit instruments to manage public finances while prioritizing education sector incentives. The authorization of funds for teacher bonuses reflects post-World War II public policy priorities, acknowledging the strategic importance of educator retention and motivation. Its existence within the LexML digital repository ensures contemporary access to historical legislative actions, enabling researchers, legal professionals, and public administrators to trace the evolution of Brazil's education funding mechanisms. The law's structure—targeting a specific ministry, defining a precise budgetary tool, and earmarking funds for a designated purpose—illustrates the technical precision required in legislative drafting. Furthermore, its classification as a statute places it within a broader legal taxonomy that includes acts, executive orders, and by-laws, showing how diverse legal instruments collectively form Brazil's regulatory framework. The public domain status of this document ensures that citizens, educators, and legal scholars can freely access, analyze, and reference this law without copyright restriction, reinforcing democratic transparency and the rule of law.

## Notable For
- **Specific Numeric Designation:** Law No. 423 from 1948 represents a precisely numbered legislative act within Brazil's sequential federal law system
- **Combined Ministry Target:** Uniquely addresses the Ministry of Education and Health (Ministerio Da Educação E Saude), reflecting a historical period when these two critical portfolios were administratively merged
- **Special Credit Mechanism:** Employs the Credito Especial budgetary instrument, a distinct fiscal tool for extraordinary or unanticipated expenditures outside regular budget cycles
- **Teacher-Specific Compensation:** Focuses exclusively on Gratificação De Magisterio, a specialized bonus category for educators rather than general salary adjustments
- **Capital City Publication:** Published in Rio de Janeiro, preserving the historical context of Brazil's capital location prior to the 1960 transfer to Brasília
- **LexML URN Structure:** Features a comprehensive URN identifier (`urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423`) that encodes jurisdiction, level, type, date, and number in machine-readable format
- **Promulgation Method:** Enacted through direct presidential promulgation, illustrating the executive's role in finalizing legislative acts
- **Public Domain Status:** As a government edict, the law is exempt from copyright, ensuring permanent public accessibility
- **Wikidata Integration:** Cataloged in Wikidata as a Brazilian law with structured relationships to its main subjects and metadata
- **Single-Purpose Legislation:** Demonstrates narrow legislative scope, addressing one specific budgetary authorization rather than comprehensive policy reform

## Body

### Legal Classification and Nature
Law No. 423 of October 7, 1948 is classified as a **statute**, which is a formal written document that creates law. As a statutory instrument, it belongs to a category that includes acts passed by legislatures, executive orders, and by-laws. In knowledge systems, statutes are recognized as instances of legal terms or concepts and are subclasses of written works, documents, and rules. This particular statute functions as a manifestation of statutory law and contains legal norms as constituent parts. Its creation followed draft laws and was caused by the legislative process, resulting in statutory law that applies to Brazil's jurisdiction. The statute is equivalent to the `https://schema.org/Legislation` class used in structured web data, and it carries library classification codes including Dewey Decimal 342.057 and 348.02.

### Enactment and Publication Details
The law was officially approved by the **Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil** on October 7, 1948, through the determination method of **promulgation**. This date serves as both the approval and publication date, establishing the law's legal effect from that day forward. The place of publication was **Rio de Janeiro**, which was Brazil's capital city at that time (the capital would later transfer to Brasília on April 22, 1960). The law was written and published in **Brazilian Portuguese**, the official language of Brazil. Its legal citation format is **Lei nº 423/1948**, following Brazilian legislative numbering conventions. The document is permanently identified in Brazil's legal informatics system through its **LexML URN**: `urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423`, which provides a unique, persistent identifier for digital retrieval.

### Content and Purpose
The law's digest states: "AUTORIZA A ABERTURA, PELO MINISTERIO DA EDUCAÇÃO E SAUDE, DE CREDITO ESPECIAL PARA PAGAMENTO DE GRATIFICAÇÃO DE MAGISTERIO." This translates to authorization for the opening, by the Ministry of Education and Health, of a special credit for payment of teacher bonuses. The **main subjects** of the law are explicitly defined as:
- **Special budgetary adjustment** (Credito Especial)
- **Teacher bonuses** (Gratificação De Magisterio, represented by Q105766534)
- **Ministry of Education and Health** (Ministerio Da Educação E Saude)
- **Payment** (Pagamento)

This narrow focus demonstrates the law's role as a targeted fiscal measure rather than broad policy legislation.

### Budgetary and Administrative Mechanisms
The statute employs the **Credito Especial** (special credit) mechanism, a budgetary tool used for extraordinary expenditures not included in the regular annual budget. This instrument allows the executive branch to respond to specific needs—here, teacher compensation—through legislative authorization. The law designates the **Ministry of Education and Health** as the sole agency authorized to execute this special credit, reflecting the institutional structure of Brazil's federal government in 1948 when education and health functions were combined under one ministerial portfolio. The funds were earmarked exclusively for **Gratificação De Magisterio**, a specific bonus category for teachers, distinguishing this from general salary increases or other personnel expenditures.

### Jurisdictional and Geographic Context
The law applies to the **Federative Republic of Brazil**, a country that declared independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822, and currently operates under the Constitution of Brazil effective October 5, 1988. In 1948, Brazil was governed as a federal republic with a presidential system. The law's publication in Rio de Janeiro situates it within the city's role as the federal capital from 1763 until 1960, when the capital transferred to the newly built city of Brasília. Brazil's legal system, as a civil law jurisdiction, relies heavily on statutes as primary sources of law, making this document a representative example of mid-20th century legislative practice.

### Digital Preservation and Authority Control
Law No. 423 is preserved in Brazil's **LexML** (Markup Language for Legislation) system, which assigns permanent URNs to legislative documents for stable citation and retrieval. The law's structured data appears in **Wikidata**, where it is described as a Brazilian law and linked to its main subjects. As a statute, the law benefits from extensive library classification systems:
- **Library of Congress Authority ID:** sh85127611
- **Bibliothèque nationale de France ID:** 120485802
- **German GND ID:** 4020660-9
- **National Library of Spain ID:** XX528757 ("Leyes")
- **Art & Architecture Thesaurus IDs:** 300027891 (statutes) and 300027889 (legislative acts)
- **Dewey Decimal Classification:** 342.057, 348.02

These identifiers ensure the law's discoverability across global knowledge systems.

### Copyright and Accessibility Status
As an official legislative enactment, Law No. 423 is in the **public domain** in Brazil and other jurisdictions including the United States and France. The "edict of government doctrine" establishes that official legal documents such as legislative enactments are not copyrightable due to public policy requiring free access to the laws that govern citizens. This status ensures that the text can be reproduced, distributed, and analyzed without restriction, supporting transparency and the rule of law. The law's availability through the LexML portal (`https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423`) demonstrates Brazil's commitment to open government data.

### Historical and Policy Significance
The law reflects post-World War II Brazilian public policy priorities, specifically addressing educator compensation through targeted fiscal measures. By authorizing special credit rather than permanent budget allocation, the legislation demonstrates a responsive approach to public sector salary management. The focus on **Gratificação De Magisterio** indicates recognition of teaching as a profession requiring specific incentive structures. The involvement of the combined Ministry of Education and Health reveals historical administrative consolidation that would later separate into distinct ministries. This statute serves as a primary source document for researchers studying Brazil's education policy evolution, public finance mechanisms, and legislative processes during the mid-20th century. Its preservation and digital accessibility enable longitudinal analysis of how Brazil has addressed teacher compensation and budgetary flexibility over time.

## References

1. [Source](https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1948-10-07;423)
2. LexML Brasil