Democratisation and the Judiciary: competing reform agends

Abstract

Brazil has embarked on many of the judicial reforms taking place in other Latin American countries. Since 1985 there have been ovo waves of reform. The first centred on the issue of judicial independence, leaving aside other aspects such as duration of cases, access to justice, or resources which lead to an overloading of the system of justice administration. The second wave of reforms was aimed at addressing these other problems. The article seeks to assess the problems of the justice system in Brazil, paying particular attention to structural constraints, levels of politicization and uneven application of the law, as well as to the successes and failures of the reform processes.

Keywords

• brasil
• tribunal
• poder judicial
• cortes
• reforma judicial