THE CHANGE IN THE PROPERTY MENTALITY AFTER THE LAND LAW OF 1850: RUPTURES AND CONTINUITIES IN THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE INSTITUTE OF PROPERTY IN BRAZIL.
Land Law; proprietary mentality; National Archive.
The present work seeks to identify the impacts of the Land Law of 1850 on the alteration of the proprietary mentality in Brazil and, consequently, on the way in which the Law began to identify the property institute. This reflection is justified insofar as, it is from the Land Law that there is a profound change in the way in which land is treated in the country, with changes in relation to commercialization, as well as the forms of acquisition and regularization of land parts. If before the Law the main forms of acquisition were based on the system of sesmarias and, later, on the regime of possessions, from the creation of the Land Law on, the phenomenon called land commodification occurs, with deepening of the notions of individualism and power in the surroundings of the property. For the analysis of these issues, a survey of the specialized literature on the subject was carried out, as well as document searches at the National Archive of Brazil, in view of its Information System, the SIAN, using its collection of archived documents that helped in identifying the occurrence of a growing bureaucratic organization in the Brazilian State, both in the central Government and in the Provinces, in order to provide better control over the issue of land in the country. Certainly, the Land Law was not able, by itself, to fully change the system of possessions and properties in the country, as seen in the fact that it did not fulfill all of its initial objectives. However, it inaugurated a new historical moment in the way in which the institute of property came to be understood by Brazilian law. As a consequence of this fact, the discussions related to possible relations between the Land Law of 1850 and the current notions about the institute of property conclude the present work, insofar as this institute is also inserted in an economic and social logic, including by Constitutional order, so that it becomes imperative to observe property from this perspective, seeking solutions to the factual demands of society, as well as allowing its economic use.