Digital constitutionalism in practice: the legislative evolution of Brazil’s Marco Civil da Internet (2014–2025)

Abstract

This paper investigates the legislative trajectory of Brazil’s Marco Civil da Internet (Law No. 12.965/2014) from its inception through its subsequent amendments and related bills up to 2025. It offers a comprehensive analysis of how Brazil’s foundational internet law has evolved in response to new regulatory demands in areas such as data protection, platform accountability, and algorithmic discrimination. Despite the centrality of the Marco Civil to global internet governance debates, little scholarship has examined its full legislative development or the interplay between its original principles and emerging regulatory reforms. This paper addresses that gap by employing a legislative historiography methodology, systematically examining laws, decrees, bills, and official parliamentary records. It makes three key contributions to existing literature: first, it reconstructs the legislative chronology of the Marco Civil and its related instruments; second, it analyses how the original normative structure has absorbed new legal obligations without losing coherence; and third, it provides a conceptual framework for understanding how rights-based digital laws evolve over time. The main conclusion is that the Marco Civil has served as a resilient constitutional anchor capable of integrating reforms while maintaining its foundational democratic and rights-based character.