On December 15, the Coordination for Applied Legal Research (CPJA) of FGV’s Sao Paulo Law School (Direito SP) held a workshop to discuss the preliminary results of four research fronts on legal issues involving civil society organizations (CSOs).

The event ‘CSO on the Agenda: research workshop’ brought together professors and researchers from FGV’s Direito SP as well as different nuclei and centers, such as the Nucleus for Fiscal Studies (NEF), Nucleus for Teaching Methodology (NME), Supreme on the Agenda, and the Nucleus for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, in addition to professors from FGV’s Sao Paulo School of Business Administration (EAESP), and other experts from different institutions. The goal was to discuss research papers on the regulation of Law No. 13.019/2014, which set forth the regulatory framework of CSOs; CSOs in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and in the Superior Court of Justice (STJ); and the taxation of donations and tax incentives for donations from individuals.

The regulation of Law No. 13.019/2014 is being analyzed by CPJA researchers in the federal and state levels, across at least three municipalities. The research analyzes all normative acts that regulate the so-called Regulatory Framework of CSOs, in order to answer three major questions: how the law is being regulated; how the managers of the CSOs perceive the effects of these rules; and what are the legal-institutional challenges of this process. In addition to the quantitative stage, which consists in identifying and systematizing these rules, the research will include a qualitative stage, in which the different players involved in the theme will be heard.

With the support from the Supreme on the Agenda project team, CPJA researchers break down STF and STJ rulings involving different aspects of civil society organizations, and follow ongoing lawsuits in superior courts to identify opportunities to develop advocacy actions and strategic litigation by CSOs. Regarding tax issues, there are different research fronts on the topic, covering everything from systematization of international experience in the taxation of donations to CSOs, with the development of a database of information from 75 countries, through the mapping of relevant issues on ITCMD collection in Brazil, to the analysis of the tax incentives for donations from individuals to CSOs, based on the information available and the possibility of obtaining data, both on the regulatory and social-cultural aspects.

Current research projects at CPJA are performed under the framework of the Civil Society Organizations Economic Sustainability Project, which aims to build a healthy legal and institutional environment for CSO operations in Brazil, and whose main goal is to strengthen civil society’s institutional capacity by generating knowledge and implementing normative and regulatory changes that improve the conditions for their political and economic sustainability.

The project is funded by the European Union and carried out by the Group of Institutes, Foundations, and Enterprises (GIFE) in partnership with the CJPA of Direito SP, the Institute of Applied Economic research (IPEA), and sponsored by Instituto C&A, Instituto Arapyaú Institute, and Fundação Lemann.

Go to the website to learn more about the Civil Society Organizations Economic Sustainability Project.