DO ESTADO LIBERAL AO ESTADO DEMOCRÁTICO-SOCIAL: O DIREITO PENAL ECONÔMICO COMO CONDIÇÃO DE POSSIBILIDADE À PROTEÇÃO DA ORDEM ECONÔMICA CONSTITUCIONAL

The purpose of this text is to answer the following problem: Economic Criminal Law, with regard to the way in which the Brazilian constituent chose to achieve a dignified existence, is a condition of possibility for the protection and development-concretization of the Constitutional Economic Order embodied in the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil? As a result, for this purpose, four objectives were listed: a) to demonstrate that, the abuse of economic power, dominating or eliminating, totally or partially, competition, through any form of adjustment, or agreement between companies, conditioned by the Public Administration, compromises free competition; b) verify that the protection provided by the Economic Criminal Law, in terms of market dominance, the elimination of competition and the arbitrary increase of profits, guarantees the Constitutional Principle of Equality (article 5, caput, item I, of the Constitution 1988); c) to analyze whether, as a result of current events related to corruption at the national level, more specifically with regard to the formation of a cartel, the State-Public Administration can be characterized as violating free competition or its own Constitutional Economic Order; to understand whether the Democratic State of Brazilian Law, as a Social State, can, in general, be considered as a legal asset and, with that, liable to be protected by Economic Criminal Law. Therefore, this study is justified by the current and historical scenario verified in Brazil, that is, the scenario related to the repeated occurrence of crimes against the economic order, in order to conclude that the Constitutional Economic Order needs protection. To meet the objectives set, the methods of historical and monographic procedure will be used, together with the technique of research by indirect, bibliographic documentation, in the case of a qualitative investigation.