Electronic Justice in Brazil

The Brazilian Justice System: A Brief Description

Brazil is a federative republic with three different levels of government: the union, the states, and the municipalities. The judicial branch, although composed of federal and states’ courts, form a national system on its own. As a matter of fact, the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Federal Supreme Tribunal), after a few constitutional direct class actions, has consolidated its position: the autonomy of the different Brazilian courts does not eliminate their insertion in a national judicial system, which is split between a federal branch and a pulverized state system. The former is divided in five regions, each one with a federal regional tribunal (appellate courts) at its top. These tribunals are also responsible in their regions for the organization of the different federal judiciary sections, which constitute the first level of jurisdiction. There are, also, other federal structures related to labor, military and electoral courts, which are organized in a similar way to the federal regional tribunals. Nonetheless, the existence of a national appellate court to each specialized theme—the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Superior Electoral Tribunal) for electoral matters, the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho (Superior Labor Tribunal) for labor subjects and the Superior Tribunal Militar (Superior Military Tribunal) for military issues—is a peculiarity of the specialized branch of the federal judicial system.