Judiciary of Brazil

TheJudiciary of Brazilis the group of public entities designated by theBrazilian constitutionto carry out the country's judicial functions.

Constitutional foundation

TheFederal government of Brazilis defined by the1988 constitutionwhich defines atripartite separation of powersinto thelegislative,executive,andjudicial branchesof government. Aside from those, the country also has thePublic Ministrywhich acts autonomously and has in the past been referred to as the country's fourth branch.

In terms of jurisdiction, the main division is between common justice (Portuguese:Justiça Comum) and specialized justice (Justiça Especializada). Common justice, composed of federal and state justices (and theFederal District'sown justice), handles most civil and criminal cases. Specialized justice, composed of electoral, military and labor justices, handles more specialized cases which also have their own specific procedures.

Article 92 of the Constitution divides the judiciary into nine organs:

• theSupreme Federal Court(Supremo Tribunal Federalor "STF" );
• theNational Justice Council(Conselho Nacional de Justiçaor "CNJ" );
• theSuperior Court of Justice(Superior Tribunal de Justiçaor "STJ" );
• theSuperior Labor Court(Tribunal Superior do Trabalhoor "TST" );
• theRegional Federal Courts(Tribunais Regionais Federaisor "TRFs" ) and Federal Judges;
• the labor courts and judges;
• the electoral courts and judges,
• the military courts and judges; and
• the courts and judges of theStates,Federal Districtand territories.

There is no judicial organization at themunicipalitylevel.

National Council of Justice

Main article:National Council of Justice

Created by Constitutional Amendment 45 of 2004, also known as the Judicial Reform amendment, theNational Council of Justice(Conselho Nacional de Justiça) has the express purpose of controlling the administrative and financial performance of the judiciary and the fulfillment of the duties of individual judges.

Its constitutional duties are to watch over the judiciary's autonomy and the maintenance of the Statueof Magistrature, ensure the constitutional principles of legality, impersonality, morality, publicity and efficiency are followed by the public administration, define aspects of the internal administration of the Judiciary, receive complaints against members of the judiciary and judge disciplinary procedures against them.

The historical antecedent of the council is the National Council of Magistrature (Conselho Nacional da Magistratura), created in 1975 with correctional powers over members of Brazilian courts, however without truly interfering in the Judiciary's autonomy. Attempts to increase this control recurred during the Constitutional Assembly of 1988, without success, and again in 1992 as part of the greater push for judiciary reform. It finally became law twelve years later.

Federal courts

Supreme Federal Court

Main article:Supreme Federal Court

The 92 courts of the Brazilian judiciary

	State		Federal
Superior courts		0	Supreme Federal Court STF	1
			Federal superior courts STJTSETSTSTM	4
Common justice	Court of Justice TJ	27	Federal Regional Courts TRF1.. TRF6	6
Specialized justice	Court of Military Justice	3	Electoral Justice Courts TRE	27
	TJM		Regional Labor Courts TRT	24
Total		30		62

Supreme Federal Courtof Brazil

TheSupreme Federal Court(Supremo Tribunal Federal) is the highest body of the Brazilian Judiciary. Its main responsibility is to serve as the ultimate guardian of the Brazilian Constitution,with the roles of aconstitutional court.It is composed of eleven ministers.

Its ministers are chosen from citizens between 35 and 65 years of age, with a spotless reputation and notable juridical knowledge, initially suggested by thePresident,and after vetting and approval by the Senate, through the Commission of Constitution, Justice and Citizenship and then a vote where they must be approved by anabsolute majorityof all members of theBrazilian Senateto then be properly named by thePresident.

The jurisdiction of the Court is defined by the constitution and is divided in two groups: matters of original jurisdiction, and matters of appellate jurisdiction. The difference is whether the lawsuit starts in the Court itself or reaches the court through an appeal.

Matters oforiginal jurisdictionare: direct unconstitutionality lawsuits (Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade); constitutional declaration lawsuits (Ação Declaratória de Constitutionalidade); cases ofprivileged venue( "foro privilegiado"); lawsuits between a foreign state or international organization and the Brazilian Federal Government, itsstates,thefederal districtand territories, or just between the internalfederative unitsthemselves and the federal government; extradition requests; injunction mandates against federal entities; and other specific cases related to the judiciary and the maintenance of the Court's authority.

Itsappellate jurisdictioninvolves: ordinary appeals of superior court decisions; extraordinary appeals (recurso extraordinário) of decisions of appellate courts which violate the constitution, declare unconstitutional a federal law, or involve conflicts between federal law and the laws ofstatesandmunicipalities;

Federal superior courts

There are four federal superior courts, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the Superior Labor Court (TST), and the Superior Military Court (STM).

Superior Court of Justice

Main article:Superior Court of Justice (Brazil)

TheSuperior Court of Justice(Superior Tribunal de Justiça) is the highest Brazilian court for non-constitutional issues concerning both states and Federal ordinary courts, dealing mainly with matters of Common Justice. Its responsibility is to standardize the interpretation of federal in the country's territory.

To achieve this purpose, the Court has aspecial appealavailable for cases where a judgement rendered by acourt of second instanceconflicts with afederal statute dispositionor when two or more second instance courts rule differently on the same federal statute.

The Superior Court of Justice also has a role in the adjudication of common crimes committed by certain officials who are accorded the special status of "privileged forum"defined by the law to apply to state governors, appellate court judges, and some other positions of higher prestige in Brazil's public service, who skip the courts of first instance and are judged exclusively by the Superior Court, which also is responsible forhabeas corpusand other appeals filed by these public servants.

It is composed of 33 ministers, chosen by thePresident of Brazilfrom three choices named by the Court itself, with prospective ministers also having to do a public Sabbath in the Senate in order to finally be named by thePresident,ministers must come from a diverse background, with a third from federal appellate courts, a third from state-level appellate courts, and the last third hailing from thePublic Ministry.

Superior Electoral Court

TheBrazilian Electoral systemis controlled by the country's Judiciary, specifically theRegional Electoral Courts(Tribunais Regionais Eleitorais), theSuperior Electoral Court(Tribunal Superior Eleitoral) and electoral judges, notably it does not have its own magistrature, being composed for the most part of magistrates from other Courts and the Judiciary.

The Superior Electoral Court is composed of seven members, three chosen from the ministers ofSupreme Federal Court,two chosen from ministers of theSuperior Court of Justiceand two chosen from lawyers indicated by theSupreme Federal Courtand named by thePresident of Brazil.Its jurisdiction involves the registry ofBrazilian Policital Parties,the organization of Electoral Zones, the maintenance of its authority and itsappellate jurisdictionover decisions of the Regional Courts.

Superior Labor Court

Main article:Superior Labor Court

The National Labor Council (Conselho Nacional do Trabalho), was created in 1923 as a subdivision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, as such, it was originally part of the executive branch rather than the judiciary. In 1946 it was reformed into theSuperior Labor Court(Tribunal Superior do Trabalho).

Headquartered inBrasilia,theSuperior Labor Court(Tribunal Superior do Trabalho) is the highest court for the Labor Justice. It is composed of 27 ministers, named by thePresident of Brazilafter approval by theBrazilian Senate,a fifth of whom must be lawyers or members of thePublic Ministry,with the rest composed of Labor Judges. Its jurisdiction involves appeals from cases already in theRegional Labor Courtsand cases regarding its own jurisdiction and the maintenance of its authority.

Superior Military Court

The military justice system is divided between the federal military justice and the state military justice, the first is in charge of matters concerning theBrazilian Armed Forces.

The first instance of the federal military justice are the Councils of Justice, formed by a military judgeand four officers, whose positions and rank depend on the accused, councils are divided between special councils, with jurisdiction over officers and Permanent Councils, with jurisdiction over those ofenlisted rank(Praças).

The second instance of the federal military justice is theSuperior Military Court(Superior Tribunal Militar), which acts as anappellate courtfor the Councils of Justice and also for specific appeals from the second instance of the state military justice.

Regional courts and judges

Main article:Federal Regional Courts

There are five Federal Regional Courts (Tribunal Regional Federal- TRF), each covering severalBrazilian states.They are established by articles 107 and 108 of theConstitution.Together with the Federal judges (juízes federais), the Federal Regional Courts make up theFederal Courts of Brazil.

Each Federal Regional Court has at least seven judges of thesecond instance,named by thePresident,recruited preferably from the region, with at least a fifth of those recruited from lawyers with at least ten years of experience..

The Regional Court serves mainly as anAppellate Courtfor cases from the Judges in the region, whose jurisdiction is defined in articles 108 and 109 of the Brazilian Constitution:

• Causes where the federal government, its agencies or enterprises have an interest, with the exception of bankruptcy andindustrial injury,which are in states' jurisdiction, and also respecting the specific jurisdiction of the labor and electoral courts, which prevails over federal ordinary courts jurisdiction;
• Causes involving foreign governments or recognized international public organization;
• Political crimes;
• Crimes against the labor organization, includingslavery(as decided in 2006 by theSTF);
• Crimes committed aboardshipsoraircraft;
• Foreignersand nationality rights;
• Indigenous peoples' rights.

As a matter of internal organization, while the Regional Courts involve several States, they are internally divided between the States, with eachStatehaving its own Section, headquartered in the Capital, with Subsections defined by law spread over the cities of the State.

Regional labor courts and labor judges

Main article:Regional Labor Courts

Together with theSuperior Labor Court,theRegional Labor Courtsand Labor Judges compose the general Labor Justice System of Brazil, with jurisdiction over mostlabor cases,including collective cases regardingTrade Unions.They have no jurisdiction over civil servants, except in specific cases at the municipal level and employees of nationalized companies, such asPetrobrasand theCorreios.

The first instance is composed of the Labor Judges, organized in specific Labor Courts (Varas do Trabalho,present in most major cities, with jurisdiction to receive most complaints from individual workers, often without the need of a lawyer, and also judge administrative matters concerning labor law. Exceptionally, when there is no Labor Court, cases oflabor lawcan be presented to the local judge.

The second instance is composed of theRegional Labor Courts,organized in 22 regions over the country, most of those receiving a specificState,these Courts have jurisdiction over collective complaints on the state-level and alsoappellate jurisdictionover cases handled by the local judges.

TheRegional Labor Courtsare composed of at least seven judges, unofficially given the title ofDesembargador,recruited preferably from the local region, of whom a fifth must be lawyers with at least ten years of experience or members of theLabor Public Ministry,similarly to other Regional Courts, they are named by thePresident of Brazilwith approval from theBrazilian Senate.

Electoral courts and judges

Main articles:Superior Electoral CourtandRegional Electoral Courts

The Regional Courts are distributed through the country's State capitals, each composed of seven judges, two chosen from the second-instance State Courts, two chosen by the State Courts from the first-instance judges, one judge of theRegional Federal Courtheadquartered in the State's capital, or if there isn't, a Federal Judge, the last two are named from six lawyers of notable juridical knowledge indicated by the local State Court.

These Courts have jurisdiction over the registry of the Municipal and State Directories of Brazilian Political Parties, candidates to the positions of Governor, Vice-Governor, and Federal and Local Congressmen, the Courts organize the local Electoral Juntas, designating their headquarters and jurisdiction, have the duty to maintain their authority with a provision to call upon federal assistance, and also serve as anappellate courtto judgements made by Electoral Judges.

The Electoral Judges are the State and Federal District first instance judges, their jurisdiction involves processing and judging common and electoral crimes, except those of jurisdiction of the Superior or Regional Courts, issue Electoral IDs and grant Electoral Transfer, take action to prevent illicit actions during elections.

Finally, the Electoral Juntas are composed of a Judge, who serves as president of the Junta, and two to four citizens with honest reputation. These Juntas are in charge of solving challenges and incidents regarding the counting of votes and issue Diplomas to the candidates elected in municipal elections.

State courts

Further information:State-level judiciary of Brazil

Courts of Justice

Pernambuco Court of Justice

The highest court of a state judicial system is the Court of Justice (Tribunal de Justiça).There are 27 Courts of Justice, one perBrazilian state,headquartered in the state capital, functioning mostly as anappellate court,and one in the federal capital. Second instance judgments are usually rendered by three judges, calleddesembargadores,however in specific cases the decision may be made by a single judge.Large courts are usually divided into different sections, specialized by subject matter.

Military courts and judges

The state military justice system has jurisdiction over the Auxiliary Forces, composed of the States'Military PoliceandMilitary Firefighters Corps.

The State Military Justice is organized on the State-level, with the first instance having a few particularities in regard to the officers rank and post, as the Auxiliary Forces do not have Generals, and the second instance being either a State-level Court of Military Justice or a specific board within the State's ordinary Court of Justice.

Courts and judges of the states, federal district and territories

Trial courts

Each state territory is divided into judicial districts (comarca), which are composed of one or moremunicipalities.Each judicial district has at least one trial court (Vara) that functions as acourt of first instancefor most cases.In large judicial districts with two or more trial courts, there may beSmall claims courtsas well as specialized courts by subject, such as courts handling exclusivelycriminal casesorfamily litigation.Judgments from the trial courts can be the subject ofjudicial reviewfollowing appeals to the Courts of Justice.

Each court of first instance has a judge and may have a substitute judge. The judge decides alone in civil cases and most criminal cases, except that ajuryhas jurisdiction over willful crimes against life (murder, attempted murder,infanticide,abortionand inducement, instigation and assistance to suicide).

See also

• Federal courts of Brazil
• Judiciary of Portugal
• Law of Brazil
• Ministry of Justice (Brazil)

External links

• Supremo Tribunal Federal
• Conselho Nacional de Justiça(in Portuguese)
• Superior Tribunal de Justiça(in Portuguese)