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Access to Justice and the Legal Complex: Building a Public Defenders' Office in Brazil
[journal article]
Abstract Latin American democracies have developed institutions to empower citizens against the state. This article brings attention to an often overlooked, but key, actor in these processes: the legal complex. I argue that the content of reforms designed to strengthen the rule of law partially reflects the ... view more
Latin American democracies have developed institutions to empower citizens against the state. This article brings attention to an often overlooked, but key, actor in these processes: the legal complex. I argue that the content of reforms designed to strengthen the rule of law partially reflects the interests of politically influential collective legal actors. Political influence is defined as a function of alliances with civil society and embeddedness within decision-making arenas of the state. To develop this argument, the article analyses the slow building of Brazil’s Public Defenders’ Office (PDO). I argue that the office’s initial institutional weakness resulted from defenders’ fragile political position relative to that of prosecutors and the bar during Brazil’s constitutional transition. Its eventual strengthening sixteen years later resulted from changes to the legal complex alliance in its favour, the formation of connections between defenders and civil society, and increased PDO access to policymaking spaces.... view less
Classification
Political System, Constitution, Government
Free Keywords
Brazil; access to justice; legal complex; institutional reform
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 155-176
Journal
Journal of Politics in Latin America, 12 (2020) 2
ISSN
1868-4890
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed