Article



Dados vol. 57 n. 4 Rio de Janeiro out./dez. 2014

Dictatorship, Democracy and Transitional Justice in Brazil: Trajectory and Legacies of the Federal Supreme Court

Río, Andrés del

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to contribute to the current debate on transitional justice, observing the participation of the Brazilian Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) in this process. To this end, the trajectories and institutional transformations of the Supreme Court during the last period of civil-military rule initiated in 1964 are analyzed. In particular, the article investigates themeans and goals of institutional changes, the political context and points out the continuation and legacies of the High Court in democracy, paying special attention to the violation of human rights carried out by state actors during the authoritarian regime. It concludes with a comparative analysis of the type of institutional transformation which occurred both during the authoritarian period as well as in democratic times.

Keywords: institutional transformations, military regime, Federal Supreme Court, transitional justice, Brazil

DOI: 10.1590/00115258201436

Full text

Dictatorship, Democracy and Transitional Justice in Brazil: Trajectory and Legacies of the Federal Supreme Court