Review of Brazil’s Judiciary

After the Constitution of 1988, Brazil enacted judicial reform that separated the three powers: executive, legislative, and judiciary and created checks and balances between the three.  Judicial reform was headed by a committee that targeted several areas of the Brazilian judicial system to increase access, efficiency, and judiciary independence.

Access

Judicial reform attempted to increase access to individual plaintiffs by allowing states to open small claims courts, presuming innocence until declared guilty by the courts, and not requiring the plaintiff to pay defense attorney fees in the event of an unsuccessful trial.  The types of the cases that could be argued to the Supreme Federal Tribunal were augmented and this Supreme Court had no option but to hear each case.

Inertia

One of the biggest objectives of Brazil’s Judicial Reform Committee was to create a system whereby judges judged based on the law and not by any other measure.  Superior Court justices were given life-long appointments by the President and an impeachment process headed by the legislature.  And these justices were solely responsible for the removal of lower court justices, thus attempting to insulate lower courts from political influence as well.  Finally, the Brazilian Supreme Court controls the court system’s budget.  Therefore, Brazil attempted to protect itself from people that were “guarding their vested interests” by creating an intensely autonomous judiciary arm. 

Independence

Brazil’s judiciary’s independence is a catch 22.  Brazil has the most politically independent judicial branch in Latin America when graded on a basis of rulings in relation to sensitive issues both politically and to the other branches of government.  However, with great power comes great responsibility and the autonomy has resulted in abuses of power, mainly in the forms of overly inflated salaries and other forms of corruption.  Because the judicial system is so independent in Brazil, it severely lacks accountability.

Delays

Brazil really lacks in terms of speed and processing of cases.  The country is infamous for its backlog of cases and insufficient quantity of judges, a result of tough qualifying exams and low pay.  It is not uncommon for cases to be dismissed in Brazil due to being too old.  Corruption is not infrequent when judges purposefully delay cases so that they are dismissed.

Corruption

As stated above, judicial corruption has come in the various forms, namely compensation.  Because the Supreme Court controls its own budget, it is no surprise that salaries are extraordinarily high.  Other forms of corruption include delaying cases to lead to their eventual dismissal.  Another form of corruption also stemming from the autonomy of the judicial branch is nepotism.  Many judges elect family members, friends, etc. to reside on the bench despite being poorly qualified to do so.  Of course, this severely weakens the quality and efficiency of the judicial system in Brazil, with judges poorly capable of accurately judging the law.  Hence, corruption stems from the independence of this branch of government, or in other words, the lack of accountability of other branches of government on the judicial system in Brazil.