Judicial Reform in Brazil

Judicial reform is currently a hotly debated topic in Brazil. The call for reform of the Brazilian judiciary, however, is anything but new. The Brazilian judiciary has been in a state of crisis since colonial days, and despite numerous attempts at reform, it remains in crisis. With the privatization of Brazil\u27s state-owned enterprises, the growth of Mercosur, the urgent need to make Brazilian firms competitive in world markets, the emphasis upon attracting foreign investment, and the opening of Brazil\u27s economy to foreign competition, Brazilian political leadership began to focus upon ways to reform Brazil\u27s malfunctioning judicial system. Unfortunately, the proposed reforms are unlikely to cure the underlying problems of Brazil\u27s judiciary, which are deeply embedded in a complex of constitutional, procedural, structural, economic, political, and cultural problems that are likely to be resolved, if at all, only over a period of many years