THE CONSTITUTION OF THE 1988 REPUBLIC AND THE HIERARCHY OF HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES IN THE BRAZILIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

This article seeks to analyze the way that Brazilian law-in particular the Constitution of 1988 -relates to the international protection instruments on human rights, as well as addressing the problem of hierarchy "differentiated" and offered contributions by these instruments for the improvement of the legal order in a historical context of the period after World War II, when the international community has not only recognize, but also gave more importance to the protection of the human rights, which are matters of legitimate interests and international concern. Finally, in spite of prevailing understanding - of the Supreme Court case law - that the agreements that deal with human rights, was approved in Congress with quorum and constitutional amendment procedure, they have the same hierarchy of the Constitution, otherwise acquire higher status the complementary and ordinary laws and below the Constitution, status above legality, there is still the discussion to find out what the true meaning of paragraph 3 of Art. 5 of the 1988 Constitution Republic.