Interinstitutional governance, legal certainty and jurisdictional action in the protection of persons with autism spectrum disorder: an analysis of Law No. 2,910/2025 of Guajará-Mirim (RO)

Abstract

This article analyzes Municipal Law No. 2,910/2025, of Guajará-Mirim (RO, Brazil), which created the Autism Identification Card in the municipality, from the perspective of interinstitutional governance, intersectoral cooperation among health, education, and social assistance, and its implications for legal certainty and jurisdictional action. The aim is to verify to what extent the municipal norm translates, at the local level, the guidelines of Federal Law No. 12,764/2012, Federal Law No. 13,977/2020 (Romeo Mion Law), and Federal Law No. 13,146/2015 (Statute of Persons with Disabilities), and to discuss to what extent the identified governance gaps tend to be converted into judicial claims. This is a qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study based on a literature review and documentary analysis of the relevant federal and municipal legislation. The results indicate that the Guajará-Mirim law, by creating an identification document that ensures priority service, tariff exemptions, and preferential treatment in emergency situations, replicates the federal normative design at the local level, while leaving open central governance questions, such as the definition of the managing body, the cooperation flows among the municipal secretariats of health, education, and social assistance, and the oversight and professional training mechanisms, gaps that, by generating uncertainty about who must guarantee what and to whom, tend to shift to the Judiciary the resolution of conflicts that could be settled administratively. It is concluded that the policy's effectiveness depends less on the formal existence of the norm than on building permanent and legally clear interinstitutional arrangements, capable of overcoming the sectoral fragmentation typical of municipal public administration and reducing the need for judicial intervention, especially in border municipalities with limited administrative capacity, as is the case of Guajará-Mirim.