The challenges of the rail transport model from the publication of the new legal framework - Law No. 14,273/2021

Abstract

: The recent Law 14,279/2021, called the “Railway Law”, causes a change in the regulatory landscape of the sector. It establishes a series of novelties that will demand the pertinent regulation and rearranges this provision of service, which does so in two main axes: authorized services and granted services, protected, respectively, by a legal regime predominantly of private law and another of public law. It inserts diverse competences to different subjects of law, comprising diversified regulations – which proves to be quite challenging. This is the relevance and topicality of the chosen theme: to contribute to the regulatory perspectives that will have to be published from now on, that is, with the edition of the aforementioned legislative framework. So, it is intended to indicate what would be the main challenges for future regulation, mentioning the main complexities of the legal system in place. To do so, the comparative method is applied with the models of science of regulation and with other regulated sectors to perceive, at first, what the normative reality is. Therefore, from the theoretical-dogmatic frameworks arising from the French and North American model, the legal analysis made for future challenges is projected. The results indicate that the regulation of Law 14,273/2021 should be able to reduce transaction costs and minimize entry barriers to investments in this sector, if regulation is thought of from different perspectives, notably in relation to regulated authorizations. It will be challenging to outline the normative acts of permitted self-regulation (which could not advance on the regulation of agencies). The regulation will have to think about how to attract investments to stretches with low demand and encourage this network with dense stretches.