The instrumentality of the borders between Brazil and Uruguay

building a regional citizenship

Abstract

This research addresses institutionalization in the border area between Brazil and Uruguay in the context of the consolidation of a Regional Citizenship that enables greater social openness and practicality for Latin American regional integration. The objective was therefore to investigate the possibilities for institutional and legal development in this border area. To this end, the study first presents the conceptual and historiographical characteristics of the borders in that region, reflecting on their main functions in the face of the socio-economic vulnerability existing in the twin cities that comprise them and Mercosur member states. In addition, the legal qualification of the Brazilian and Uruguayan border limits is determined with the help of relevant legal systems of Public International Law. Therefore, using the methodologies of deductive and dialectical approach, and the methodologies of historical, observational and comparative procedure, the research follows an interdisciplinary theoretical line. Consequently, making use of all the referred theory, it is concluded that the border between Brazil and Uruguay is a geopolitically privileged area and that its institutional use enables the emergence of a greater dynamism for regional integration and for the functioning of Mercosur.