# Law No. 7017 of August 30, 1982

> Brazilian law

**Wikidata**: [Q105650111](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105650111)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/law-no-7017-of-august-30-1982

## Summary
Law No. 7017 of August 30, 1982 is a Brazilian federal statute that restructured professional oversight by mandating the split of the Federal and Regional Councils of Biomedicine and Biology into separate governing bodies. Promulgated by President João Figueiredo during the final years of Brazil's military regime, this legal norm was published in Brasília and remains accessible as a public domain document through Brazil's official legislative portal.

## Key Facts
- **Official Title:** Lei nº 7017, de 30 de agosto de 1982
- **Publication Date:** August 30, 1982
- **Promulgating Authority:** Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil under President João Figueiredo
- **Legal Citation:** Lei nº 7017/1982
- **Jurisdiction:** Federative Republic of Brazil (applies nationwide as federal law)
- **Place of Publication:** Brasília, the federal capital
- **Language:** Brazilian Portuguese
- **Document Type:** Statute (formal written document that creates law, subclass of written work and rule)
- **LExML Brazil Identifier:** urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1982-08-30;7017
- **Primary Subject Matter:** Legal norms concerning professional council reorganization, specifically stated as "DISPÕE SOBRE O DESMEMBRAMENTO DOS CONSELHOS FEDERAL E REGIONAIS DE BIOMEDICINA E DE BIOLOGIA" (Provides for the splitting of the Federal and Regional Councils of Biomedicine and Biology)
- **Determination Method:** Promulgation (the act that transforms a bill into law)
- **Manifestation:** Creates statutory law as a manifestation of legislative authority
- **Copyright Status:** Public domain under the edict of government doctrine (applies to US and French jurisdictions)
- **Online Availability:** Full text accessible at https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l7017.htm
- **Equivalent Class:** Maps to schema.org/Legislation in structured data ontologies
- **Dewey Decimal Classification:** 342.057 and 348.02 (for statutes and legislation)
- **Authority Control:** Recognized in global library systems including Library of Congress (sh85127611) and German National Library (GND ID: 4020660-9)

## FAQs
**What specific change did Law No. 7017 of 1982 implement?**  
The law mandated the administrative separation of the Federal and Regional Councils of Biomedicine and Biology, splitting what was presumably a unified professional oversight body into distinct councils for each discipline. This reorganization affected how these two scientific professions would be regulated, represented, and governed throughout Brazil's states and federal districts.

**Who signed this law into effect and what was the political context?**  
President João Figueiredo promulgated the law on August 30, 1982, during his tenure as Brazil's last military president (1979-1985). The enactment occurred two years before the country's transition back to civilian rule, representing a late-term legislative act of the military regime's final administration.

**How does this law fit into Brazil's legal system?**  
As a federal statute, it operates as a formal written document that creates binding legal norms across all states and jurisdictions within Brazil. It functions as a manifestation of statutory law, created through the legislative process and resulting in enforceable regulations for professional councils nationwide.

**Where can legal professionals and researchers access the official text?**  
The complete authenticated text is available through the official Planalto government portal at https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l7017.htm, maintained by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The document is also indexed in the LExML system with the persistent identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1982-08-30;7017.

**Is this law protected by copyright?**  
No. Like all Brazilian statutes, Law No. 7017 is in the public domain under the edict of government doctrine, which establishes that official legislative enactments cannot be copyrighted. This ensures unrestricted public access to the laws governing Brazilian citizens.

## Why It Matters
Law No. 7017 of 1982 represents a significant administrative reform in Brazil's professional regulation landscape during a pivotal political moment. By splitting the joint councils of biomedicine and biology, the law created separate governance structures that likely enabled more specialized oversight, distinct ethical codes, and tailored licensing requirements for each profession. This reorganization mattered because biomedicine and biology, while related fields, have different practice scopes, research applications, and public health implications that benefit from dedicated regulatory attention. The timing during President Figueiredo's administration is notable—enacted just three years before Brazil's 1985 transition to civilian governance, it reflects the military regime's approach to professional organization and state control over scientific and medical fields. The law's persistence for over four decades demonstrates its foundational role in structuring how these professions interact with federal and regional authorities, influence public policy, and maintain professional standards. As a public domain document freely accessible through official channels, it exemplifies Brazil's commitment to governmental transparency and the principle that citizens must have unfettered access to the laws that shape professional practice and, by extension, public health and scientific research governance. The law's inclusion in global knowledge graphs and library authority systems further underscores its status as a reference point for understanding Brazilian administrative law and professional regulation during the late military period.

## Notable For
- **Specific Professional Reorganization:** Unique focus on splitting biomedical and biology councils rather than merging or creating new professions from scratch
- **Military Era Legislation:** Among the final statutes enacted during Brazil's 21-year military regime, signed by its last president
- **Precise Temporal Marker:** Fixed publication date of August 30, 1982, with no amendments or version variations indicated in available records
- **Persistent Digital Access:** Maintained on the same Planalto.gov.br URL structure for decades, demonstrating stable government digital archiving
- **LExML Integration:** Early adoption of Brazil's URN:LEX identifier system, providing permanent machine-readable citation format
- **Public Domain Clarity:** Explicitly free from copyright restrictions in multiple jurisdictions, ensuring reproducibility in academic and legal contexts
- **Semantic Web Mapping:** Recognized equivalent to schema.org/Legislation, enabling structured data representation across knowledge graphs
- **Multilingual Indexing:** Cataloged in over 100 Wikipedia language editions through its "statute" class membership, despite being a Brazil-specific law
- **Dewey Decimal Dual Classification:** Holds two distinct Dewey numbers (342.057 for general statutes, 348.02 for specific legislation), reflecting its cross-cutting legal nature
- **Authority Control Density:** Registered with five major library systems (LOC, BnF, GND, NDL, KBpedia) and three specialized thesauri, exceeding typical indexing for national statutes

## Body

### Legal Classification and Nature
Law No. 7017 of August 30, 1982 is classified as a **statute**, which constitutes a formal written document that creates law. In Brazil's legal taxonomy, this places it as a subclass of "written work," "document," and "rule," while functioning as a manifestation of statutory law. The law contains "legal norms" as its constituent parts and resulted from the legislative process that followed draft laws. Its creation was caused by a legal act of promulgation, transforming a proposed bill into binding federal law. As a statutory instrument, it is distinct from executive orders and by-laws, though it shares the same parent classification. The document is recognized in global knowledge systems as equivalent to schema.org/Legislation, enabling its representation in semantic web applications and linked data platforms.

### Promulgation and Publication Details
The statute was officially promulgated on August 30, 1982, by the Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil under President João Figueiredo. The promulgation process represents the determination method that gave the bill legal force. Publication occurred in Brasília, which has served as Brazil's federal capital since April 22, 1960. The law was enacted during the final years of Brazil's military regime—Figueiredo's presidency lasted from 1979 to 1985, making this one of the last major legislative acts before the 1985 transition to civilian governance under President-elect Tancredo Neves. The official citation "Lei nº 7017/1982" follows Brazil's standard legislative numbering convention, combining the law number with the year of enactment.

### Subject Matter and Scope
The law's digest explicitly states its purpose: "DISPÕE SOBRE O DESMEMBRAMENTO DOS CONSELHOS FEDERAL E REGIONAIS DE BIOMEDICINA E DE BIOLOGIA." This indicates a statutory mandate to split the existing Federal and Regional Councils that previously governed both biomedicine and biology professionals into separate, discipline-specific bodies. The main subject is categorized as "legal norm" with the stated qualifier "Normas," confirming its function as a source of binding regulatory requirements. As federal legislation, it applies to the entire jurisdiction of Brazil, encompassing all 26 states and the Federal District. The law's scope covers professional regulation, licensing, ethical oversight, and disciplinary procedures for two distinct scientific and healthcare-related fields, fundamentally altering the governance structure under which these professionals operate.

### Access and Digital Preservation
The full authenticated text remains publicly accessible through multiple official channels. The primary source URL is https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l7017.htm, hosted on the Planalto portal maintained by Brazil's presidency. This portal serves as the definitive repository for federal legislation. Additionally, the law is indexed in Brazil's LExML (Lex Markup Language) system with the persistent identifier urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1982-08-30;7017, following the URN:LEX standard for legal documents. This machine-readable identifier ensures permanent citation capability. The document is available in Brazilian Portuguese, the official language of Brazil and the sole language of promulgation. As a public domain work under the edict of government doctrine, the text can be freely reproduced, distributed, and analyzed without copyright restriction in the United States, France, and other jurisdictions recognizing this principle.

### Jurisdictional and Systemic Context
Law No. 7017 operates within Brazil's federal republic system, where the National Congress (comprising the Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies) holds legislative authority. The statute applies uniformly across Brazil's vast territory of 8,515,767 km², which spans multiple time zones from UTC-02:00 to UTC-05:00. The law was enacted when Brazil's government functioned as a military-led federal republic, before the 1988 Constitution established the current democratic framework. It remains valid unless explicitly repealed or superseded by subsequent legislation. The law's existence predates Brazil's modern currency (the real, introduced 1994) and the current presidential terms that began with civilian rule in 1985. Its continued enforcement demonstrates the durability of professional regulatory frameworks established during the military period.

### Authority Control and Global Indexing
The statute's concept-class ("statute") is extensively cataloged in global library systems, which by extension contextualizes Law No. 7017 within a recognized legal document type. The Dewey Decimal classifications 342.057 (statutes, acts, laws) and 348.02 (regulations, statutes) apply to this document. Authority control identifiers include the Library of Congress Subject Heading sh85127611, German National Library GND ID 4020660-9, and analogous identifiers in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and National Diet Library systems. These classifications facilitate cross-border legal research and comparative law studies. The statute type is also indexed in specialized thesauri including the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (terms 300027891 and 300027889) and the PACTOLS thesaurus, enabling interdisciplinary research bridging law, history, and museum studies.

### Semantic Web and Knowledge Graph Integration
As an instance of the "statute" class, Law No. 7017 inherits semantic properties that enable its integration into knowledge graphs. The entity holds a Google Knowledge Graph ID /g/120kn55l and BabelNet ID 00050588n. In Wikidata, it is referenced with properties including P467, P17 (country: Brazil), P1001 (applies to jurisdiction: Brazil), P2567, P2568, P3148, P7588, P953, and P9681. These properties link the law to its jurisdictional context, temporal markers, and related legislative instruments. The statute's equivalent class mapping to schema.org/Legisulation allows search engines and AI systems to parse its metadata, enhancing discoverability for queries about Brazilian professional regulation, military-era legislation, and biomedical governance.

### Historical and Professional Impact
The 1982 enactment date places this law in a critical transitional period for Brazil. The splitting of professional councils likely responded to growing specialization within life sciences and the need for distinct regulatory frameworks as biomedicine diverged from general biology in scope and practice. This reorganization would have affected thousands of professionals across Brazil's 26 states, establishing separate pathways for credentialing, continuing education, and ethical compliance. The law's persistence suggests it successfully created stable governance structures that adapted to Brazil's 1985 democratization and subsequent constitutional reforms. Today, it remains a reference point for understanding how professional regulation evolved during military rule and how administrative reforms from that era continue to shape contemporary practice in Brazil's healthcare and scientific sectors.

## References

1. [Source](https://www.lexml.gov.br/urn/urn:lex:br:federal:lei:1982-08-30;7017)
2. [Source](https://legislacao.presidencia.gov.br/atos?tipo=LEI&numero=7017&ano=1982&data=30/08/1982&ato=989g3ZE9ENrRVT9d7)
3. LexML Brasil