Dr Priscila Pivatto

Current Research

Research Associate Oral History Project

History of Parliament Research

At the History of Parliament I am currently working on the Oral History Project. The project will create a sound archive of people involved in politics at national and constituency level. We are now recording the reminiscences of former Members of Parliament. Our special focus is on how people came to be Members, and how they worked within the constituency and in Parliament for their constituency and for the particular causes in which they were interested.

Research and Publications

I am a legal scholar and historian and my main focus is Legal History. My recent work analyses different aspects of the history of political and constitutional thought in the First Republic in Brazil (1889-1930). I use sources such as parliamentary proceedings, court decisions and textbooks from the period and I am very interested in the intersection between legal history and the history of books. I hold a Doctorate in Law degree awarded by Universidade de São Paulo, as well as master's and bachelor's degrees in Law and a bachelor's degree in History.  My publications include:

- “Leituras republicanas: produção e difusão de livros de Direito Constitucional brasileiro na Primeira República.” [Republican Readings: production and dissemination of Brazilian Constitutional Law books during the First Republic]. História 30 (2011): 144-178;

- “Building the Republic: Discourses in the Prefaces of Brazilian Constitutional Law Books (1892-1925)”, in: Norman Domeier (ed.). Inter-Trans-Supra? Legal Relations and Power Structures in History. Saarbrücken: AV Akademikervelag, 2011: 235-248;

-  “Memória do pensamento constitucional do Brasil e a teoria da mudança no período republicano.” [Memoirs of the constitutional thought in Brazil and the theory of change in the republican period] (with Bentes, F. R.; Carvalho, T. R.; Fittipaldi, M.; Vieira, J. R.) Cadernos de Direito da FESO v. VI, 8 (2008): 157-169;

- “Mecanismos de alteração constitucional: um estudo comparado das estruturas constitucionais da Argentina (1853/1860), Suíça (1848/1874) e Brasil (1891).” [Mechanisms of constitutional changes: a comparative study of the constitutional structures of Argentina (1853/1860), Switzerland (1848/1874) and Brazil (1891).] Direito, Estado e Sociedade 30 (2007): 102-124