ABSTRACT 'Rivadavia' educational law is emblematic. Brazilian educational historiography often refers to it as a short-term excrescence, since it prevailed until 1915, or yet, as a legitimate expression of a merely liberal republican State, with no need for further quest once the nature of the State has been given. However, it is the apogee of a historical process that has its conceptual beginnings in the second last decade of the Empire. "Liberal teaching" is then first conceived, which gained status among us as liberal educational offer. It is assertive to say that 'Rivadavia' law is the last expression of a "world view" which was developing in those two last decades of the Empire. The prevalence of such understanding in the Republic is precisely the indicator of a constitutional restraint to the modern right to education, for it requires a propositional and covenantor State. Thus, 'Rivadavia' law is a paradoxical expression among teaching regulations: it exacerbates a liberalism of "lenient teaching" that hinders the historical appearance of the social right to education in a modern sense.
'Rivadavia Correa' Law; "Liberal Teaching"; Social Right to Education