Look for the tools you need responsibly and always respect the environment around you.
Born in the city of Itapetininga in 1958, at the age of 15, Marco Antonio Marques da Silva had already decided to pursue a career in Law. He holds a Bachelor’s in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (1981), a Master’s in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (1991), a Doctorate in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (1995), a teaching degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (1999) and a postdoctoral degree in European Economic and Criminal Law by the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra (2005) (Portugal); he became a tenured professor in Criminal Procedure Law at the Faculty of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (2003). Marco Antonio Marques da Silva is also the head of the research group on Human Dignity and the Rule of Law at PUC-Sao Paulo (accredited by CNPq).
Coordinator of the Center for Research in Criminal Procedure Law (Master’s and Doctorate) within the Post-Graduate in Law program at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (2009-2013). President of the the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Academic Program (PUC-SP and UNHCR). Court of Appeals Judge in the São Paulo Court of Appeals; Chairman of the Press and Communication Committee of the São Paulo Court of Appeals (2010-2017); Member of the Committee on Institutional Affairs between the São Paulo Court of Appeals and the Faculties of Law; Member of the Brazilian Senate’s Commission of Jurists on the Reform of the Criminal Code, Dean for the Escola Paulista da Magistratura (São Paulo Judicial School), Director of the Department of Institutional Relations of the São Paulo Association of Judges, Visiting and Honored Professor (Medal of Honor) of the Faculty of Law of the University of University of Lisbon – Portugal, Professor Honored with Special Distinction by the University of Lisbon – Portugal, Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra – Portugal, Doctor Honoris Causa by Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas, Professor Emeritus of the Escola Paulista da Magistratura (TJSP – São Paulo Court of Appeals), President of the Brazilian Academy of Criminal Law and Director of the Academy of Judges of Portuguese Language (Lisbon/Portugal).
Member of the Scientific Council for the LISBON LAW REVIEW – Journal of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Is a member of the Scientific Committee of “INTERPRETATIO PRUDENTIUM – Journal of Roman Law and Roman Tradition” of the Research Center of the University of Lisbon. Member of the Center for Legal Research on Cyberspace at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. Is an expert on Criminal Procedure Law, Constitutional Procedure Law and Fundamental Human Rights. Author of books and articles in these areas.
Where did the idea for your books and events come from?
Considering that we have been producing books, articles and academic events with professionals from different countries, the events of globalized society have inspired at every moment what should be done; there is no closed rule, but it stems from what is imperative and necessary in accordance with the construction of the different areas of scientific thought.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
We have been active in the academic field at PUC-SP for 36 years and in the Judicial Branch of the State of São Paulo for more than 34 years. Thus, we invariably have undergraduate and postgraduate classes (masters and doctorates) from the Faculty of Law of PUC-SP. Outside the class period, the academy still requires us to participate in Masters and PhD candidates, coordinating works for publication originating from research and debates within the subject of Law, advising the University’s current Rectory and coordinating the Sérgio Vieira Chair of Mello, at PUC-SP, which is an arm of UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) As the Judge of the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, we study the processes that reach us in a degree of appeal and prepare our decisions that will be debated and voted by the panel of judges of the criminal section to which we belong. Usually our daily life is very agitated, but extremely pleasurable intellectually and also, for the reach of the insertion to the professional route that we always aim for and we prepare ourselves gradually during a whole life.
How do you bring ideas to life?
The ideas are the consequence of a very wide insertion and of the conviviality with uplifting people. As we travel a lot and have the opportunity to get in frequent contact with diverse academic universes, mainly in Portugal and Italy, when we return to Brazil always the ideas abound and we have managed to fructify the contacts and the learnings.
We have already materialized, in the form of publications, several academic works carried out jointly with foreign professors and that debate issues different from the Law, under really expanded optics, because they access extremely different visions and formations.
We see that the works are not ours; are fruits of our ideas, have left them, we have given life to them, but with the objective that they fruit in the formation and new idealizations of those who read them, contributing to a true network of knowledge, but mainly of a knowledge that helps to resize reality , expanding it, making it operational and helping to build a better world.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The interdisciplinarity of knowledge is something I have been working and studying for some time. When we say that there is no hierarchy of knowledge and no science alone can understand the complexity of today’s life, with all its diversity, I think it is incredible to appreciate a joint construction for the understanding of dilemmas, human suffering and everything else. which involves humans. Human dignity is another aspect that involves us researching and placing it as a meta-principle, that is, that is above any other point in the Brazilian Constitution. In dealing with the specific dramas of the courts, with what is judged in the proceedings, we feel very closely how important work is that can reach that human being, that family, either the victim, the defendant, in a comprehensive way. And in the midst of this is the true protection sought by society, which in one way or another cries out for Justice, which may now be punishment, now may be the commiseration of a subject, a family at the mercy of their own fate , without public policies that reach it, without adequate treatment for their emotional suffering, their psychic disorganization, etc.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
The reading can be pointed out as a recurring habit; reading everything that is within reach, from periodicals and specialized books to weekly, national and international newspapers and magazines, can be pointed out as a true happiness that rejoices and completes me internally. Two other habits that can be called uplifting are the cinematic productions, always inspiring and thought provoking, and the trips that, when undertaken with open eyes and soul, help to have many inputs for ideas and academic productions and of life itself.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Remember Saint Augustine, work hard as if everything depends on you and trust as if everything depended on God!
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.
“The best way to use our money is to travel.” Many do not really like it and should be respected, but others fear not to apply money to other things they find solid and fail to travel; in this sense they disagree because they do not see solidity in travel. They can not see beyond the investment, they can not feel how much knowledge of cultures, places, people, gastronomy, music, smells can be the true treasure, only stressing that every trip is only good when you have a good companion beside you . In fact, another thing that we believe and many do not agree, “we only know one person truly in travel situations, since we have to cross many different things in a short time; the emotions are put to the test, the balance, the giving to the other and many other feelings arise “.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Set goals and focus; be persistent. Look for the tools you need responsibly and always respect the environment around you. There is no use in achieving your goals if your family is destroyed by your individual plans; try to integrate it always.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
Study and work always, in addition to surrounding yourself with people who really trusted our potential, our honesty and ability to work. Greedy people, without study and / or emotional preparation, in addition to the lazy, can be a life delay.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
The failure or success of every human being has, and is always relative; sometimes what we see as failure today, tomorrow we will come to understand that it had a purpose to happen, and that sometimes we did not have reach to understand. We believe that the paths present themselves at the moment and in the way they need to be shown. We often say that God does not write right by crooked lines, he always writes right and in the right line, we see them crooked.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
The best money was spent helping a person who needed it at that moment; may seem too sentimental, but the pain of the other, the suffering, the absence of a decent life bothers us. So it is not uncommon to give alms, understanding that the already humbling individual asking for some help can return home early or wherever. We seek to do our part, and to go beyond it; we must try to accomplish something concrete. The relationship with someone who suffers, who lives without minimal dignity, mobilizes us to use money (regardless of value) in the way we see and feel we will do better for the other.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
A notebook and an IPAD, with the usual good word, so I can record my ideas as they emerge. At the moment I am dealing better with Powerpoint in the presentations; the slides allow me to better expose and illustrate my ideas to students and interlocutors. There are good apps that streamline travel work such as compiling and updating the Vademecum, Goodnotes, which allows me to make a notebook with notes even with handwritten letters on the Ipad etc.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“Book of Disquiet (Livro do Desassossego)“, by Fernando Pessoa. It is a posthumous work, published in 1982, almost fifty years after the death of the author, but brings a contemporaneity that helps us reflect several everyday phenomena; lets us glimpse, with sensitivity, feelings that orbit between restlessness, boredom, anguish, but also a great lucidity and being critical.
What is your favorite quote?
Those that complement a determinant phrase or thought; when we are in a conversation about a right or wrong situation, we usually use an expression of the Portuguese brothers: “Tell me about your justice.” Or, when the discussion concerns the occurrence of several facts that we almost do not realize: “there are more tides than sailors”
Key Learnings:
– Appreciation of the human being;
– A man of work, faith and study;
– Solidarity and respect for the diversity of knowledge are the dynamo necessary for a full professional
Carlyn runs the day-to-day publishing operation here at ideamensch and interacts with our awesome customers and entrepreneurs. She is likely editing this with a cat on her lap.