Noncompliance e Mercosul: uma análise sobre os níveis e fontes do descumprimento legal no bloco

Abstract

Based on data collected directly from the Mercosur Secretariat, we seek, first and foremost, to understand the state of legal noncompliance within the bloc, exposing in the process possible noncompliance patterns over time (between 2011 and 2022), between current bloc members (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), and across two of Mercosur’s main decision-making institutions (GMC and CCM). Secondly, we mobilise the main theoretical perspectives in relation to noncompliance (Rationalist, Managerial and Constructivist) in the hopes of understanding which of them, if any, can better explain the phenomenon as seen in Mercosur. The results reveal a multifaceted, complex reality, with most of the analysed Mercosurian law having been incorporated into the domestic legal orders of the Member States and thus considered as “in force” by the bloc, but done so with considerable delays – only a fraction coming into force within their deadlines, confirming the general perception of Mercosur as having compliance issues. Going further, the results show that compliance levels vary not only between different Member States, but also between institutions, with the normative production of GMC and CCM showing distinct compliance patterns. Our efforts to test the selected theoretical approaches against our findings resulted in the confirmation of three of the proposed hypotheses (H1, H2 and H5) and the refutation of the remaining ones (H3, H4 and H6), with the Rationalist approach showing greater explanatory power. That said, some of these Mercosur-specific compliance dynamics also caused the distortion of specific theoretical predictions, demonstrating the need for caution when applying these theories to the bloc.